Menu

Primary Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Ebola index
  • MERS Numbers
Show Header Sidebar Content

Virology Down Under

Facts, data, info, expert opinion and a reasonable, occasionally grumpy, voice on viruses: what they are, how they tick and the illnesses they may cause.

Category: Communication

A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells

Posted onMarch 27, 2025April 3, 2025

Here’s a measles infographic prepared using a range of sources and some feedback from the public. It aims to present measles symptoms and the levels of the virus and white Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, MeaslesTagsInfographic

words in dictionary

Stop Hijacking Definitions To Farm Anger And Clicks!

Posted onDecember 29, 2023February 9, 2025

It’s a funny old time to be a scientist. Advances are being made as ever, and new knowledge around airborne virus infection and transmission is accruing like never before. Not Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, Definition

Vote Yes in the 2023 voice to Parliament referendum.

I’m voting YES to the Voice to Parliament.

Posted onAugust 8, 2023August 9, 20232 Comments

Because the First Nations people of Australia deserve to have the privileges the rest of us take for granted and, at the very least, be the source of truth on Read More …

CategoriesCommunication

young annoyed female freelancer using laptop at home

‘Endemic’ covers a lot of biology, but we’re probably not there yet for COVID-19

Posted onJanuary 2, 2023January 2, 2023

Right up front, I’m going to repeat myself by saying that I think COVID-19 will become a disease that has endemic as well as epidemic states at some point in Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, Endemic, Influenza, Picornavirus, Transmission, VariantsTagsCOVID-19, disease, endemic, influenza, pandemic

Whatever happened to communication?

Posted onJuly 24, 2022July 25, 20222 Comments

I’m not an expert in many things. But I’m enough of a scientist to conclude with confidence that what’s happening now with COVID-19 in Australia and in many other countries Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, Pandemic

Thank goodness we did all the work

Posted onJanuary 29, 2022July 16, 20226 Comments

Thank goodness we didn’t hold off on opening up to see what Omicron was capable of. We had to have Christmas. And there were national cabinet agreements. Anyway, how could Read More …

CategoriesAerosols, Communication, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Editorial, Enterovirus, Influenza, Parechovirus, Rhinovirus, SARS-CoV-2, Transmission

The Swiss cheese infographic that went viral

Posted onDecember 26, 2020November 15, 202233 Comments

A visual representation of how to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 struck a chord with many in 2020. I won’t rehash all that has already been written about the Swiss cheese Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2

Yes, PCR tests can detect “the COVID virus”

Posted onAugust 4, 2020September 14, 2020114 Comments

I was asked to write some comments for a fact check article about some of the myths going around about PCR-based testing and whether PCR tests can detect “the COVID Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Debunking, DNA, Laboratory methods, PCR, SARS-CoV-2TagsRT-PCR, RT-rPCR

Ya es tiempo pasado para decirle al público: ‘Probablemente será una pandemia, y todos deberíamos prepararnos ahora’

Posted onMarch 7, 2020March 7, 2020

Por Jody Lanard y Peter M. Sandman al Español por Daniel Romero-AlvarezPublicado originalmente en Inglés por Ian M. Mackay en su blog personalA translated version of my earlier post, performed Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Coronavirus, COVID-19

Add some balance to the expert commentary

Posted onMarch 1, 2020July 10, 20208 Comments

Look. If this triggers your innate biases or your need to call me out as a virtue signaler or tell me “now isn’t the time”, seriously save yourself the spittle Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Coronavirus, COVID-19

¿Piensas que pronto estarás en una pandemia?

Posted onFebruary 29, 2020February 29, 20203 Comments

Por Ian M Mackay, PhD y Katherine E Arden PhDKindly translated by Assistant Professor María Paz Bertoglia Arredondo El síndrome agudo respiratorio severo Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 [1]) se ha expandido Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Pandemic

So you think you’re about to be in a pandemic?

Posted onFebruary 25, 2020July 12, 2020217 Comments

by Ian M Mackay, PhD and Katherine E Arden PhD The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 [1]) has spread to over 30 countries and regions outside mainland China. Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Coronavirus, Pandemic

Past Time to Tell the Public: “It Will Probably Go Pandemic, and We Should All Prepare Now”

Posted onFebruary 23, 2020February 23, 2020331 Comments

by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman NOTE FROM IAN: The expert risk communication team of Lanard and Sandman has given me permission to post their very well-considered reply to Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2

Familia figures

Posted onFebruary 12, 2019February 16, 2019

Science communication can come in many shapes and sizes. But a picture still tells a thousand words. And in this case, there are about 6,000 words worth of mosquito communication Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, MosquitoTagsAedes aegypti, mozzie, SciComm

No, it isn’t time to cede the field to endemic Ebola virus disease in the DRC

Posted onNovember 21, 2018November 22, 20181 Comment

A few weeks ago, the Director of the CDC made comments to the mainstream media raising the spectre of endemic Ebola virus disease, or an ongoing, permanent infection in the Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, Ebola virusTagsDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Ebola virus, Ebola virus disease

Post navigation

← Older posts

More of VDU

  • Pinterest
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Mastodon

Recent Posts

  • Flu down under is a July thing June 16, 2025
  • Q fever – an old zoonosis with a better diagnosis June 9, 2025
  • What if Harvard loses? April 19, 2025
  • Measles takes your immune memories April 9, 2025
  • A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells March 27, 2025
  • United States influenza: biggest season in 15 years of data February 18, 2025
  • No new A/H7N8 chook farms hit in Victoria so far February 17, 2025
  • The US 2024-2025 flu season and the vaccine February 13, 2025
  • A good news RSV vaccine story for adults February 5, 2025
  • Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in Australia – a 2022 study and the current state January 29, 2025
  • Not the “Chinese flu” label thing again…please January 6, 2025
  • SNAPDATE: MPOX cases in Australia, 14.09.2024 September 14, 2024
  • In Australia, COVID-19 deaths may have stopped decreasing September 6, 2024
  • It takes a while to gather death data September 5, 2024
  • Update on Monkeypox virus (MPXV) transmission in Australia August 6, 2024

All opinions are my own and do not represent medical advice or the views of any institution.

All graphics made by me are free-to-use. Please just cite the particular page, blog and me. A heads-up would be nice, but that can happen later.

Tags

anti-vaccination asymptomatic Australia avian influenza China Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC Ebola virus Ebola virus disease epidemic epidemiology EVD Flu flunami flu season genotype H1N1 H3N2 H7N9 HTLV HTLV-1c influenza influenza virus MERS MERS-CoV molecular epidemiology outbreak PCR pneumonia Queensland reporting respiratory virus rhinovirus RT-PCR SciComm science communication seasonal influenza social media SoMe summer transmission United States of America vaccine Wuhan Zaire ebolavirus

Regular reads…

  • FluTrackers-everything infectious, before it happens
  • Mike Coston’s Avian Flu Diary
  • Crawford Kilian’s infectious disease blog
  • Pathogen perspectives: Ebola and more
  • ProMED mail
  • WHO Disease Outbreak News
  • HealthMap
  • STAT News
  • CIDRAP-timely infectious disease reporting
  • Maia Majumder’s blog
  • Kai Kupferschmidt
  • Martin Enserink
  • EpiRamblings

 

Recent Posts

  • Flu down under is a July thing
  • Q fever – an old zoonosis with a better diagnosis
  • What if Harvard loses?
  • Measles takes your immune memories
  • A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells

All opinions are my own and do not represent medical advice or the views of any institution.

All graphics made by me are free-to-use. Please just cite the particular page, blog and me. A heads-up would be nice too but that can happen later.

Mastodon: @mackayim2022@mastodon.social

Twitter: @mackayim

Copyright © 2025 Virology Down Under. All Rights Reserved.
• The following link is used to verify that I 'own' the domain
for use with Mastodon
Theme: Clean Box Pro
Scroll Up
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Ebola index
  • MERS Numbers