The FDA has indicated booster shots, to cover coronavirus variants, won’t need to go through lengthy phase 3 clinical trials. Instead, they can be tested in smaller trials, which will save time.
Michael Plank, University of Canterbury; Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Siouxsie Wiles, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Moving Auckland to level 3 for a week gives health officials time to track down additional cases and shut off chains of transmission. But we should also be prepared for a wider outbreak.
You’ve been vaccinated; can you now safely see your friends and family? New research hints that vaccinated people may be less likely to transmit the coronavirus, but they are not 100% in the clear.
The first year of dealing with the pandemic has taught New Zealand many lessons — including how we might tackle systemic social and environmental problems.
Occasionally, a mutation will give the virus a better chance of surviving and reproducing itself, and will result in a new population (known as a new lineage)
The rapid increase in the number of infections is the most obvious reason why new variants of the virus have been emerging recently. Case numbers doubled in just two months at the end of 2020.
The pandemic will not end for anyone, anywhere until it is controlled in every country. Tanzania’s approach will make it that much harder for normality to return.
Michael Plank, University of Canterbury; Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Siouxsie Wiles, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
The highly infectious nature of the COVID-19 variant, and the fact the infections have no clear link to the border, leaves the worrying possibility of a more widespread community outbreak.
Are two face masks better than one? Adding layers of filtration by double masking is a way of using the masks that we already have, possibly to better effect.
These variants are definitely cause for concern. But there’s every indication we can adapt our vaccine strategy to combat these and other variants going forward.
The virus is evolving and new strains are more transmissible. Will the vaccines work against these new variants? How can researchers stay ahead of the virus’s evolution?
Recently announced travel restrictions are intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants. However, we need to do a better job of tracking arrivals into the country.
The results indicate that the vaccine efficacy in the UK was 89% for individuals who received at least two doses of vaccine. In South Africa, the vaccine efficacy was 60% in people without HIV.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand