The “false-positive PCR” problem is not a problem
If you haven’t seen all the chatter that states PCRs using more than thirty-something (someone even suggested 25 to me!) cycles will suffer from false positives and so is useless, Read More …
Category: Coronavirus
And another thing…on false positives
Sometimes the full story can’t fit into a media article. A lot of words can be said during an interview with a journalist but sometimes it’s just really hard to Read More …
COVID-19 is not a virus, but SARS-CoV-2 is
For about two weeks we lived with, published using, and talked about, a disease-causing virus called the “novel coronavirus”. That name was always going to create problems like, what do Read More …
Why does soap work so well on SARS-CoV-2?
This is a guest post from Prof Palli Thordarson of the Uni of New South Wales. It was previously posted in a Twitter thread and on Facebook and has been Read More …
COVID-19 in Australia
As the cases begin to build up – but are still pretty low with limited community spread having been detected – now is a good time to start watching where Read More …
Face off
We touch our faces often. Maybe 3 to 23 times an hour often! But if our hands haven’t just been washed and we’ve touched surfaces contaminated by viruses surviving in Read More …
Ya es tiempo pasado para decirle al público: ‘Probablemente será una pandemia, y todos deberíamos prepararnos ahora’
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 …
Add some balance to the expert commentary
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 …
¿Piensas que pronto estarás en una pandemia?
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 …
So you think you’re about to be in a pandemic?
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 …
Not so novel: numbers: around COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
A mammoth overview was just released by researchers from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (their website is a bit slow right now so have patience).[1] It broke Read More …
Flight of the aerosol
Understanding what we mean when we discuss airborne virus infection risk. An article collaboratively written by (alphabetically).. Dr. Katherine ArdenA former postdoctoral researcher with interests in the detection, culture, characterization and epidemiology of respiratory viruses.Dr Graham Read More …
Novel Wuhan coronavirus cases leap up
Confirmed cases of the novel Wuhan coronavirus have gone from 62 detected in Wuhan (and 3 exports that we knew of then) to over 200 after a jump of 136 Read More …
China +2
Two countries, in addition to China, have now had visits from the novel Wuhan coronavirus, detected in travellers with respiratory symptoms. Thailand and Japan have each reported a case and Read More …
Some human-to-human transmission isn't surprising in Wuhan
A couple of people have asked me lately if they should be worried about the novel Wuhan coronavirus. Which got me to thinking. Much of what we sciencey types chat Read More …