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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: COVID-19

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, 2022

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

Masks matter for more than mandates

Posted onJuly 7, 2022July 26, 20222 Comments

The amount of virus per amount of snot, air, monkey or whatever is a way to describe the concentration of virus present in that thing. It might seem intuitive to Read More …

CategoriesAerosols, COVID-19, Masks, SARS-CoV-2TagsInfectious dose, Plaque forming assay, TCID50

NEXTSTRAIN Clades, 02MAY2022

BA.2.12.1 is on the rise in New York…

Posted onMay 2, 2022May 2, 2022

A recently named sub-strain represents the latest twist in the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2. It’s currently active in the United States and looks to be very capable of spreading, outpacing Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Variants

Lockdowns had a role: they saved lives

Posted onApril 18, 2022April 18, 2022

There are threats and lists and all manner of abuse aimed at those who promoted or supported measures that saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. I just want to make Read More …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, Pandemic, TransmissionTagsLockdown

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

Living next door to Alice

Posted onJanuary 3, 2022July 24, 20222 Comments

I mean, who wants to say “living with COVID” amirite? The connotation is that it’s just a necessary thing we have to do. But really, at some point, it kind Read More …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Transmission

pexels-photo-5878501.jpeg

Ireland and the vaccinated hospitalised-it ain’t what it looks like

Posted onNovember 6, 2021November 7, 20213 Comments

The media have again become fixated on the higher number of COVID-19 fully-vaccinated people in Irish hospitals and ICUs – but when you apply a little mathematics, it’s clear that Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, Debunking, Vaccines & vaccination

WHO to new PCR users: read the damned manual!

Posted onJanuary 23, 2021January 23, 20218 Comments

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published (14th Dec 2020, then updated 20th Jan 2021) a piece of advice for laboratories testing for SARS-CoV-2 using PCR. The advice boils down: Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, PCR

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

The “false-positive PCR” problem is not a problem

Posted onNovember 22, 2020December 30, 202058 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, PCR, SARS-CoV-2

More testing shows more iceberg

Posted onOctober 29, 2020November 3, 20205 Comments

COVID-19 case numbers are rising quickly in many parts of the northern hemisphere. Already some totals have outstripped the peaks seen in the first wave of the pandemic. Europe and Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, PCR, SARS-CoV-2

Sigh, yes, the ‘COVID virus’ is real

Posted onOctober 6, 2020November 3, 202024 Comments

There has been talk out thar in the wildlands of Twitter from people who don’t believe the evidence that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is real. Has Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, Debunking, PCR, Virus discovery

And another thing…on false positives

Posted onJune 29, 2020June 29, 202025 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, Laboratory methods, PCR

Rhinovirus rampant or testing triumphant?

Posted onJune 27, 2020September 14, 202017 Comments

Turns out, this physical distancing thing actually works as advertised. Who would have thought that keeping the things viruses need for their survival – hosts full of cells – far Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, Picornavirus, Rhinovirus

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Recent Posts

  • ‘Endemic’ covers a lot of biology, but we’re probably not there yet for COVID-19 January 2, 2023
  • Whatever happened to communication? July 24, 2022
  • Masks matter for more than mandates July 7, 2022
  • An early & big flu rise in Australia June 7, 2022
  • BA.2.12.1 is on the rise in New York… May 2, 2022
  • Unexplained hepatitis: severe liver inflammation among young children April 25, 2022
  • Lockdowns had a role: they saved lives April 18, 2022
  • Super-cold or a silly headline? April 15, 2022
  • Arrrrr on the rise (Rhinovirus, RSV and RATs) March 19, 2022
  • Thank goodness we did all the work January 29, 2022
  • Living next door to Alice January 3, 2022
  • Ireland and the vaccinated hospitalised-it ain’t what it looks like November 6, 2021
  • WHO to new PCR users: read the damned manual! January 23, 2021
  • Putting PCR into real-time January 2, 2021
  • The mechanics of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)…a primer December 28, 2020

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.

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Recent Posts

  • ‘Endemic’ covers a lot of biology, but we’re probably not there yet for COVID-19
  • Whatever happened to communication?
  • Masks matter for more than mandates
  • An early & big flu rise in Australia
  • BA.2.12.1 is on the rise in New York…

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.

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