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: COVID-19

We don’t yet know the origin story for SARS-CoV-2

Posted onMay 4, 2020May 4, 202025 Comments

By Katherine E Arden, PhD & Ian M Mackay, PhD The existence of a coronavirus related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was first hinted at by a researcher Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Virus discovery

Kits and reagents and viruses

Posted onApril 12, 2020January 2, 202312 Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the use of the words “kit” and “reagent”. I completely feel for you if you still have no real idea of what is meant by Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, Laboratory methods, PCR, SARS-CoV-2

COVID-19 is not a virus, but SARS-CoV-2 is

Posted onMarch 21, 2020March 23, 202050 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19

Why does soap work so well on SARS-CoV-2?

Posted onMarch 9, 2020March 9, 202047 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, TransmissionTagsCleaning, Disinfection, Soap

COVID-19 in Australia

Posted onMarch 9, 2020March 9, 202011 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19, Pandemic, SARS-CoV-2TagsAustralia, epidemiology

Face off

Posted onMarch 8, 2020March 29, 202015 Comments

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 …

CategoriesCoronavirus, COVID-19

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

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

Posted onFebruary 23, 2020February 23, 2020330 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

Post navigation

Newer posts →

More of VDU

  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google
  • Facebook

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.

Tags

A/H3N2 anti-vaccination asymptomatic Australia avian influenza China Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC Ebola virus Ebola virus disease epidemic epidemiology EVD Flu 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

More on Twitter

My Tweets

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

  • ‘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.

Mastodon: @[email protected]

Twitter: @mackayim

Follow Me

Copyright © 2023 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