Code for life

COVID-19 The rise and rise of Delta

Grant Jacobs • Jun 22, 2021

• COVID-19,
• Delta variant,
• New Zealand,
• Sydney

From media headlines it feels like hearing the boy cry “fire” in the theatre. There’s a new variant about. Or perhaps he is really a crier, calling out a new season of the show, a new plot twist with a craftier villain? The main feature in town is now the variant Delta—B.1.617.2—and its closest staging to us is a so … Read More

Attempt to stop NZ vaccine rollout declined, government to pass new bill

Grant Jacobs • May 19, 2021

• COVID-19,
• High Court,
• Sue Grey,
• vaccine rollout

The High Court has declined an attempt to halt New Zealand’s vaccination rollout. It does asks the Crown to consider how their plans sit within current law. The government plans to pass a Bill under urgency today to tackle this. I think a fair question is if the deeper issue lies with a lack of mechanism for emergency use approval in … Read More

COVID-19 vaccines prevent spread of the virus too

Grant Jacobs • May 13, 2021

• BioNTech,
• COVID-19,
• immunity,
• mRNA,
• New Zealand,
• Pfizer,
• transmission,
• Vaccine

Many people seem to be reading that our COVID-19 vaccine won’t prevent the spread of COVID-19 from one person to the next.1 If you’re worried about this, this one is for you. We now have evidence the vaccine reduces transmission, and a rough idea of by how much.2 Science is often about pulling different pieces of evidence together, in this … Read More

Blood clots, vaccines and the need for baselines

Grant Jacobs • Mar 15, 2021

• AstraZeneca,
• baseline,
• blood clots,
• COVID-19,
• statistics,
• Vaccine

Some nations are pausing their AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine campaigns over concerns that it may be linked to blood clots. International media is is reporting it widely. I’m seeing concerned people asking questions on social media. Evidence so far indicates this is unlikely to be a real issue, but one that is being checked out of caution. One thing it illustrates … Read More

B.1.1.7 variant – early result suggests longer infections, management questions

Grant Jacobs • Feb 21, 2021

• B.1.1.7,
• COVID-19,
• infection,
• management,
• SARS-CoV-2,
• variant

Sometimes it’s smaller, intensive studies that shed light on issues. Just reported results of daily sampling of COVID-19 patients indicate patients with the B.1.1.7 variant first observed in Kent, UK may have a longer infection compared to patients infected with non-B.1.1.7 variants. This is the variant seen in NZ’s most recent outbreak in Auckland. If this observation bears out in … Read More

COVID-19: backing our front row

Grant Jacobs • Oct 23, 2020

• border,
• COVID-19,
• Hygiene,
• New Zealand,
• QR code

New Zealand has been called out as an outstanding player in managing COVID-19. We’ve done well,[1] but we’re far from perfect. We could do a lot better at backing our front row. Epidemiologists advise nations not to play “wait and see”. If By the time they do see, it’s all over them. “She’ll be right”… until it isn’t. We’re less … Read More

COVID-19: sequence the viral genomes of all border cases

Grant Jacobs • Aug 17, 2020

• August 2020,
• border,
• COVID-19,
• genome,
• New Zealand,
• outbreak,
• SARS-CoV-2,
• sequence

New Zealand has an advantage in managing COVID-19: all our cases come from the border, one way or other.[1] We can exploit this in how we shut down outbreaks. One way is to have at the ready the viral genomes of all border cases. With this we can quickly find the starting point of any outbreaks inside the country. If … Read More

Lifting our game against COVID-19

Grant Jacobs • Mar 23, 2020

• #COVID19,
• COVID-19,
• New Zealand,
• quarantine,
• SARS-CoV-2,
• social distance,
• testing,
• tracing,
• tracking

We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. [Edit: this was written before to the announcement of the Level 4 lockdown, and the National State of Emergency. The explanation of why we’re doing this, and general points should still be useful.] You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to … Read More

Is 2019-nCov a pangolin coronavirus?

Grant Jacobs • Feb 08, 2020

• 2019-nCov,
• coronavirus,
• pangolin,
• Wuhan

Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate for an intermediate host than previous speculations. It is also … Read More

The 2019-nCov coronavirus outbreak: all together now

Grant Jacobs • Feb 01, 2020

• 2019-nCov,
• age range,
• case fatality rate,
• coronavirus,
• infectious period,
• mortality rate,
• nCov-2019,
• R0,
• scicomm,
• Science,
• science communication,
• Wuhan

There’s so much being reported about the ‘Wuhan’ 2019-nCov coronavirus outbreak it’s confusing. Here’s an outline of some aspects of what scientists are looking at, some places to follow the story, and a few tips for reading the science. Yesterday Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) wrote, calling for a public health emergency – … Read More