Infectious Thoughts

They say, ‘learn to live with Covid-19’. Here’s what I say back

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 18, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• plan b

Around the world, different countries are taking different approaches to dealing with the global pandemic. Here in Aotearoa, our government listened to the advice of the overwhelming majority of its medical experts and scientists and settled on an elimination strategy, which we’ll call Plan A. But a vocal minority has been calling for us to take a … Read More

Why we’re adding masks to our Covid-19 toolkit

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 17, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• masks

Lots of people might be wondering why we’re now being asked to wear face masks when we didn’t use them the first time we were stamping out Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand. Back in April I wrote about how even the experts couldn’t agree whether masks should be worn by everyone. Some of that disagreement was … Read More

How genome sequencing could crack the case of the NZ Covid comeback

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 13, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• genome sequencing,
• Pandemic

The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another. As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, raised genome sequencing – something which “may help us … Read More

Don’t panic. We can do this. Together

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 12, 2020

• Auckland,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• masks,
• Pandemic

Aotearoa surpassed 100 days without a case of community transmission of Covid-19. Last night that virus-free streak ended and we’re moving back up the alert levels.  For months now, we’ve been intercepting cases of Covid-19 at the border. But just as has happened in many other countries, somehow the sneaky bastard has got in. At a late press conference last … Read More

Victoria’s lockdown ‘an endless game of Covid-19 whack-a-mole’

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 04, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• lockdown,
• Melbourne,
• Pandemic

Siouxsie Wiles The restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New Zealand. But the state of Victoria has lost valuable … Read More

Four possible scenarios for the Australian and South Korean travellers

Siouxsie Wiles • Aug 01, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• Pandemic,
• testing

Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean? They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are different ways to test someone for Covid-19. The main ways … Read More

Why I’m confident there is no community transmission in NZ

Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 25, 2020

• border,
• community transmission,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• testing

Both the leader of the opposition Todd Muller and University of Auckland Professor Des Gorman have gone on the record as saying they suspect Covid-19 is spreading in the community in New Zealand once again. Let me explain why I don’t agree with them. As best I can tell there are two reasons Muller and Gorman have jumped to the … Read More

Why are we seeing these new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand?

Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 23, 2020

• border,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• quarantine,
• symptoms,
• testing

After weeks of no new cases of Covid-19, in the last week we’ve recorded nine. That’s sounds pretty scary, but here’s why there’s no reason to panic. For weeks now, almost every day there have been over 100,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world. On two days last week that number topped 170,000. Sadly, it looks like the … Read More

Simple rules to play it safe at alert level two

Siouxsie Wiles • May 14, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• level 2,
• social distancing

Today Aotearoa New Zealand wakes up in alert level two. It’s no secret that I would have preferred for us to stay at level three for another week or so. That’s because I’m worried we don’t quite yet know how effective level three has been at keeping us on our path to eliminate Covid-19. But the government has had … Read More

Why getting tested quickly matters so much

Siouxsie Wiles • Apr 30, 2020

• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• symptoms,
• testing

For days now, the numbers of new confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand have been in single figures. But they haven’t been zero. Lots of people have noticed and have started asking me why, after all the weeks we’ve spent in lockdown, we still have people testing positive for the virus. It’s a good question … Read More