The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a brand-new respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2. With that introduction, as suspected, lots of things were thrown into disarray. One of those was the circulation of other respiratory Read More …
Happy FluMas, ya filthy animals! With a new flu variant – subclade K – dominant, Australia and New Zealand are seeing a very unusual bout of seasonal influenza (flu) as Read More …
Australia has recorded its largest number of laboratory-confirmed influenza virus detections among sick people for any July on record. While the numbers may be slowing, there is no way of Read More …
This is a graph I didn’t know I wanted to make. But now I have, I needed to make it! It shows the influenza virus detections reported to laboratories in Read More …
The United States has been suffering from many influenza virus infections. And it looks like those are translating into a “flunami” of hospitalisations, which has resulted in the US CDC Read More …
Two poultry farms in the southern Australian State of Victoria have been quarantined for high pathogenicity avian influenza A/H7N8 infections, but spread to additional farms has not been observed so Read More …
There are minimisers who spread misinformation, like butter on hot toast. And yes, it can sink in and spread further. One of these piles of melted fat ridiculously claims that Read More …
Each year we get a new vaccine for each hemisphere. The design gets settled six months out, and sometimes a lot can change in that time. So how does the Read More …
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 …
Influenza (flu) cases have been rising rapidly in Australia this year. Some see this as a result of waning immunity during our border closures. Some see this as the harbinger Read More …
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 …
Influenza (flu) hit Australia earlier in 2019 than it had for many years. It reached a very high peak of cases and the flu season lasted for longer than usual. Read More …
The highly variable H3N2 influenza viruses which seem to cause us the most trouble, heartache and headlines have only been with us since 1968. These tiny droplets of dread emerged Read More …
The world of influenza (Flu) is filled with many strange things. One of these is why we label the influenza A (FluA) viruses with an “H” (short for the name Read More …
I was asked to present a talk for science week 2019. I thought an explanation of the unprecedented 2019 influenza (flu) season (nicknamed flunami) would be a good talk. But Read More …