Tag Archives: Covid-19

Vanessa Apea, Queen Mary University of London and Yize Wan, Queen Mary University of London The release of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report has generated a groundswell of negative reaction, specifically of disappointment and frustration. The report minimises structural racism, a reality for so many that negatively impacts on their opportunities to achieve their full potential. It …

The common cold is usually caused by a rhinovirus. Shutterstock/fizkes Matthew James, Queen’s University Belfast We often assume that viral infections are caused by individual virus types. But in reality, we’re exposed to many viruses on a day to day basis, and co-infection – where someone is simultaneously infected by two or more virus types – is quite common. The …

maybealice/Shutterstock Jessica Williams, Cardiff Metropolitan University As COVID-19 has swept across the globe, it seems that high transmission rates have partly been driven by a large number of people catching the virus, not experiencing symptoms and then unknowingly passing it on. Despite this, the screening of asymptomatic people for signs of infection hasn’t been widespread, due to costs and limits …

Shutterstock Anthony Zulli, Victoria University; Maja Husaric, Victoria University; Maximilian de Courten, Victoria University, and Vasso Apostolopoulos, Victoria University The federal government has asked Australia’s medical and vaccine regulators to urgently consider the European Medicines Agency’s finding of a possible link between the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID vaccine and rare blood clots. This follows reports over recent weeks of blood clots in …

Krakenimages.com/Shuttersstock Simon Nicholas Williams, Swansea University and Kimberly Dienes, Swansea University When was the last time you shook someone’s hand, or kissed them on the cheek to say hello? The pandemic has put a stop to these simple gestures, while social distancing and strict hygiene practices have become part of our everyday lives as a necessary way of minimising the …

Agnes Arnold-Forster, University of Bristol “After the pandemic is over” must be one of the most frequently uttered phrases of 2021. I am certainly guilty of this kind of optimism, longing for the day when I can get on a plane, have dinner with my friends, and cuddle all the new babies I know who have been born under the …

Liam Wignall, Bournemouth University and Mark McCormack, University of Roehampton Lockdown significantly affected our health (for good and bad), our work and how we socialise. These consequences have been widely discussed, but far less attention has been given to the effect on our sex lives. When lockdown came into force in the UK in March 2020, people from outside the …

David Whyte, University of Liverpool Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, reportedly attributed the success of the COVID-19 vaccines to “capitalism” and “greed”. But he is wrong – the idea that private ingenuity and naked competition produced the vaccines is a complete fantasy. Before COVID-19, the vaccine market was notoriously sluggish, taking between five and 15 years to develop a …

Dominic Dwyer, University of Sydney The World Health Organization (WHO) overnight released its report into the origins of the coronavirus, a report I contributed to as a member of the recent mission to Wuhan, China. The report outlines our now well-publicised findings: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, most likely arose in bats, and then spread to humans via an …

Liz Breen, University of Bradford and Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University Two new COVID-19 vaccines are due to arrive in the UK. As the country begins to emerge from lockdown, recent announcements about the Moderna and Novavax vaccines will boost confidence in its vaccination rollout. With more than 30 million first doses administered, the rollout is going well. It …