Yes, PCR tests can detect “the COVID virus”

I was asked to write some comments for a fact check article about some of the myths going around about PCR-based testing and whether PCR tests can detect “the COVID Read More ...

Rhinovirus rampant or testing triumphant?

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 ...

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 ...

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 …

Ya es tiempo pasado para decirle al público: ‘Probablemente será una pandemia, y todos deberíamos prepararnos ahora’

Posted onMarch 7, 2020March 7, 2020Leave a comment

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

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 …

¿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 …

So you think you’re about to be in a pandemic?

Posted onFebruary 25, 2020July 12, 2020213 Comments

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 …

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

Posted onFebruary 23, 2020February 23, 2020316 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 …

Not so novel: numbers: around COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2

Posted onFebruary 20, 2020March 28, 20202 Comments

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

Posted onFebruary 9, 2020March 17, 20206 Comments

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 …

Wuhan remains the source, for now

Posted onJanuary 21, 2020January 22, 20202 Comments

Cases of the novel Wuhan coronavirus remain anchored in contact with the city of Wuhan in Hubei province. When that changes and we see human-to-human (h2h) spread occur outside of Read More …

Novel Wuhan coronavirus cases leap up

Posted onJanuary 20, 2020January 21, 20203 Comments

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 …

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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