Australia’s growing tendency to call in the defence force to deal with crises outside its usual remit is cause for concern. Shouldn’t we be better prepared to respond to disasters?
The federal government has had a patchy pandemic, to say the least. But COVID has also highlighted remarkable social discipline in the Australian people.
Vanessa Bryant, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) ; Alex Holmes, The University of Melbourne, and Louis Irving, The University of Melbourne
While we don’t know exactly what causes it yet, there are a few leading theories put forward by researchers around the world.
Research from Alberta points to the burden parents have faced with home learning. Here, a youth passes Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto, May 27, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The pandemic education shock has raised five critical issues that demonstrate how student learning and achievement and social well-being are far from mutually exclusive.
A security guard leads reporters away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a WHO team arrived for a field visit in Wuhan, Hubei province of China, Feb. 3, 2021. The team came to no conclusions about the origins of the pandemic.
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Gain-of-function studies make a natural virus more dangerous or transmissible to humans. Could the Wuhan Institute of Virology be the source of SARS-CoV-2?
We’ve learnt two cases linked to Melbourne’s COVID outbreak were in fact ‘false positives’. Here’s what that means, why it can happen, and how common it is.
Non-specific illnesses, such as headache and fatigue, are common, as are mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
We can learn from how the Howard Springs quarantine facility in the Northern Territory works when planning Victoria’s new hub.
Glenn Campbell/AAP Image
COVID treatment guidelines in India specify higher doses of steroids than other countries, which could be to blame for the rise in mucormycosis or “black fungus”.
Pharmacist Barbara Violo arranges all the empty vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine that she has provided to customers at an independent pharmacy in Toronto.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians got a shot of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for their first dose. They now have a choice for their second dose: AstraZeneca again, or Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine?
Some people can still get sick after getting vaccinated for COVID-19.
Dragana991/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Vaccinated people can still get infected with the coronavirus. So if you have symptoms of COVID-19, getting tested can protect others and help health officials keep an eye on the virus.
Who’s a good doggie? Sniffer dogs might one day be able to screen people for COVID-19 in large crowds. But not when they’re hungry or need a good lie down.
Kitwe Food and Farmers’ Market, Zambia.
Samantha Reinders/African Centre for Cities
As the global South transitions to a predominantly urban future, food offers a way to understand the role of cities in future development.
International tourism dropped considerably to Thailand Buddhist temples as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Thailand’s Buddhist temples, important centers of culture and commerce, rely on donations from international visitors. Because of a steep drop in tourism, these temples have been hit hard.
What is a ‘blue acceleration’ doing to our oceans?
Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Catesby Holmes, The Conversation, and Daniel Merino, The Conversation
Plus, why Brazilian women who lived through Zika are avoiding getting pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to episode 18 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
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