All posts by Hassan Vally
COVID remains a global emergency, the World Health Organization says, but we’re at a transition point. What does this mean?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. As we enter the fourth year of living with COVID, we are all asking the predictable question: when will the pandemic be over? To answer this question, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a pandemic involves the worldwide spread…
We’re entering a new phase of COVID, where we each have to assess and mitigate our own risk. But how?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. The Australian government’s latest COVID management plan, released yesterday, maps how the nation will learn to live with COVID. This means transitioning from the emergency phase of the pandemic response, to responding to it in a similar way…
Just because someone had COVID before they had a heart attack doesn’t mean it was the cause
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Last week ABC journalist and physician Norman Swan suggested the heart attacks of two high profile people over the past year were unlikely to be a coincidence. The suggestion was that it was too unlikely two people in…
Someone in my house has COVID. How likely am I to catch it?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Throughout the pandemic, one of the biggest COVID risks has been sharing a house with someone who is infectious. Given how contagious COVID is, especially more recent variants, you’d imagine if you lived with someone who has COVID…
Should we be worried about our pet cats and dogs getting COVID?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID, originated from bats and then, probably after passing through an intermediary host, gained the ability to infect humans. Many new viruses that emerge in this way, like SARS-CoV-2, maintain the ability to…
Herd immunity was sold as the path out of the pandemic. Here’s why we’re not talking about it any more
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Early in the pandemic, the term “herd immunity” hit the headlines, along with a polarised discussion on how to achieve it. Some groups were attached to the now-discredited notion of letting a dangerous virus rip through the population…
Can sniffer dogs really detect COVID almost as well as a PCR test? Turns out they can
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Dogs have an exceptional sense of smell. We take advantage of this ability in many ways, including by training them to find illicit drugs, dangerous goods and even people. In recent years, a dog’s sense of smell has…
Don’t bring COVID home on election day. Plan your vote to stay safe
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. Given what’s happening in some places in the world right now, we should take a moment to appreciate how lucky we are to live in a peaceful democracy. We all have a vote and a say in who…