Age and COVID-19: What’s with all the young kids?

Inspired by an online conversation and the hard work of others, I set off to examine age groupings among Australians confirmed as COVID-19 cases, based on testing using a quality-laboratory Read More ...

Another way to look at flu season size

Peak height, number of cases, deaths, severity – these are all terms that are used to give you an idea of how big a flu season has been. Here’s another Read More ...

The “Infection Pause”: because it’s about fewer infections, not an immune debt to repay

There was a real, measurable shift in the peak season for several endemic human pathogens as well as a rebound in infections, coinfections, and disease severity among them after the Read More ...

Asymptomatic, acute and persistent COVID-19 symptom changes over the course of three infections

Data from a UK healthcare worker cohort published in 2024 examined how signs and symptoms of COVID-19 changed after 1, 2, or 3 SARS-CoV-2 lab-confirmed infections. Those with no symptoms Read More ...

H7N9 numbers….no-one agrees…

Posted onFebruary 24, 2017January 31, 2025

#H7N9 number mess. @WHO 22FEB:1223 FAO 22FEB: 1230 CHP 21FEB: 1227 FT: 967+ #VirolDU: no bloody idea Yeeeeup. *Old link – deleted when my account was deleted: https://twitter.com/MackayIM/status/834888299747520512 *Imported Post

H7N9 virus in humans in China: just how big is this?

Posted onFebruary 22, 2017July 12, 2019

…I don’t really know, but a lot bigger than I thought when I was tinkering with the numbers for the last post (which has since been updated by the way). As Read More …

Science needs to talk more but I know many scientists who don’t…

Posted onFebruary 10, 2017July 20, 2019

A comment I replied to on LinkedIn which I thought was worth expanding on here – a rare moment of clarity pre-coffee. Scientists don’t engage the community while wearing their scientist hat Read More …

Happy Festive Season to all who read this….

Posted onDecember 18, 2016July 13, 2019

..whatever your shape, colour, gender, sex, size, beliefs, weight or disposition, I wish you a happy festive season. May 2017 be a better year for those of us who wish Read More …

Korea contamination: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in the room..

Posted onSeptember 2, 2016May 17, 2025

Remember that MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea in May 2015? It was the biggest outbreak of MERS-CoV to occur outside the Arabian peninsula, killing 20% of those known to be Read More …

Human parechovirus (HPeV) may be spread with the help of well kids…

Posted onFebruary 16, 2016July 17, 2022

The first human parechoviruses (HPeVs) were initially called Human echovirus 22 (HPeV-1) and Human echovirus 23 (HPeV-2).[11,12] These guys were discovered in the summer of 1956, but they weren’t officially Read More …

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV)

Posted onJanuary 26, 2016January 25, 2026

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) was first described by van den Hoogen et al in 2001.[1] It had been isolated from young children with respiratory tract disease, and studies of old serum samples found that Read More …

Whether MERS-CoV spreads or stops is entirely up to the hospitals…

Posted onAugust 23, 2015March 29, 2025

The very steep rises in Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases seen in the graph below are not due to overwhelming numbers of new exposures to infected camels. Those upwards inclines Read More …

MERS simmers down in South Korea…did we learn anything this time?

Posted onJuly 13, 2015May 13, 2025

No new cases reported in 8 days and the most recent known date of illness onset now 10 days ago, are good indications that the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus Read More …

PCR primers…a primer!

Posted onMay 5, 2015September 14, 2020

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR, described here) works mainly because of two components – a heat-stable DNA polymerase enzyme (adds new nucleotides to a chain of nucleotides) and a pair Read More …

Because sometimes laughter conveys a message better than fear…

Posted onApril 27, 2015November 22, 2019

This builds on my smaller page of MERS-CoV themed wannabe memes found here. These were all made by me but feel free to use if they suit a purpose (a link/reference Read More …

The structure of DNA… a primer

Posted onApril 1, 2015December 30, 2020

For an organism or a virus, to grow or replicate, it must make new pieces of itself and assemble those pieces into something functional. Let’s take a short walk through Read More …

Rhinoviruses (RVs)…a primer

Posted onApril 1, 2015July 17, 2022

More than 100 serologically distinct types (serotypes) and another 50 or more genotypically defined and distinct types (genotypes) of human rhinovirus (RV; Greek rhin = nose) exist within the genus Enterovirus. Read More …

Ebola virus disease (EVD) index

Posted onOctober 7, 2014February 18, 2026

To make it a little easier for me to keep up, I thought an index of my key posts – some of which address your most pressing concerns about Ebola virus, ebolaviruses Read More …

Old MERS and MERS-CoV numbers

Posted onAugust 5, 2014February 18, 2026

This is a static page – the internet address won’t change, just the charts as I add new numbers and update them. The page will present Middle East respiratory syndrome Read More …

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.

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