COVID-19

Featured image: With COVID-19 mutating and surging, NZ urgently needs to tighten border controls

With COVID-19 mutating and surging, NZ urgently needs to tighten border controls

Guest Author • Jan 13, 2021

Nick Wilson, University of Otago and Michael Baker, University of Otago The global COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying, with more infectious variants of the virus, and more rapid spread, especially in countries such as the US and UK. This deterioration has meant a higher number of infected returnees arriving at New Zealand’s MIQ facilities — with 31 new cases in … Read More

Featured image: Post-pandemic cities can permanently reclaim public spaces as gathering places

Post-pandemic cities can permanently reclaim public spaces as gathering places

Guest Author • Jan 08, 2021

Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing measures have contributed to an increased recognition of the … Read More

Featured image: Long COVID: who is at risk?

Long COVID: who is at risk?

Guest Author • Jan 06, 2021

Frances Williams, King’s College London For most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are still researching long COVID. It’s not well understood, though our … Read More

Featured image: Oxford COVID vaccine authorised in the UK – global health expert on why this is a key moment

Oxford COVID vaccine authorised in the UK – global health expert on why this is a key moment

Guest Author • Jan 05, 2021

Michael Head, University of Southampton The UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government has ordered 100 million doses of the … Read More

Featured image: How to keep COVID-19 at bay during the summer holidays — and help make travel bubbles a reality in 2021

How to keep COVID-19 at bay during the summer holidays — and help make travel bubbles a reality in 2021

Guest Author • Dec 22, 2020

Michael Plank, University of Canterbury and Alex James, University of Canterbury Recent announcements on travel bubbles and quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia from early next year will be welcome news for whānau and friends as well as businesses and the tourism industry. But as the prime minister made clear, the travel bubble will be contingent on the … Read More

Featured image: Not just complacency: why people are reluctant to use COVID-19 contact-tracing apps

Not just complacency: why people are reluctant to use COVID-19 contact-tracing apps

Guest Author • Dec 21, 2020

Farkhondeh Hassandoust, Auckland University of Technology Last week’s announcement of two new COVID-19 vaccine pre-purchase deals is encouraging, but doesn’t mean New Zealanders should become complacent about using the NZ COVID Tracer app during the summer holidays. The immunisation rollout won’t start until the second quarter of 2021, and the government is encouraging New Zealanders to continue using … Read More

Featured image: An Australia–NZ travel bubble needs a unified COVID contact-tracing app. We’re not there

An Australia–NZ travel bubble needs a unified COVID contact-tracing app. We’re not there

Guest Author • Dec 14, 2020

Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity Australia New Zealand’s coronavirus contact-tracing app COVID Tracer was recently revamped. It now uses the Bluetooth-based Google/Apple exposure notification (GAEN) framework. This allows Android and Apple (iOS) devices to communicate via a contact-tracing mechanism built into the devices’ operating systems. Meanwhile, Australia continues to use the COVIDSafe app, which also uses Bluetooth, but with … Read More

Featured image: 30% of New Zealanders are ‘vaccine sceptics’, so trust is key to COVID-19 vaccine roll-out

30% of New Zealanders are ‘vaccine sceptics’, so trust is key to COVID-19 vaccine roll-out

Guest Author • Dec 11, 2020

Claire Breen, University of Waikato The emergency approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and the imminent roll-out of several other vaccines in 2021 raises serious questions about New Zealand’s likely uptake of this vital public health response. Recent research into New Zealanders’ attitudes to vaccination suggest positions have become more polarised over the last decade, … Read More

Featured image: Sweden vs. New Zealand, with Taiwan in the lead

Sweden vs. New Zealand, with Taiwan in the lead

Dave Heatley • Dec 11, 2020

Is the Covid pandemic and our collective responses to it best framed as health vs. the economy? That is, are countries forced to make a horrible trade-off between: minimising Covid infection rates at high economic cost; and accepting higher Covid infection rates, this being the cost of maintaining economic activity? This framing underlies many of the popular narratives comparing the … Read More

Featured image: A vaccine will be a game-changer for international travel. But it’s not everything

A vaccine will be a game-changer for international travel. But it’s not everything

Guest Author • Dec 04, 2020

Adrian Esterman, University of South Australia The United Kingdom yesterday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use. Following a review by the country’s drug regulator, the UK government announced it will begin rolling out the vaccine next week. Other countries are likely to follow soon, authorising the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and possibly other … Read More