Category: Australasia
Australasian Coronavirus News
ALERT! The world’s highest ever daily case rate has just been recorded
The world saw it’s highest ever number of Covid infections in one day yesterday. More...
UK.GOV: Vaccine booster doses wane after just 10 weeks
“The latest data suggests this extra protection starts to wane more rapidly, being about 15 to 25% lower from 10 weeks after the booster dose.” More...
3 billion Omicron infections worldwide predicted
A report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is predicting 3 billion new infections of the Omicron variant worldwide over the next two months. More...
Omicron overpowers monoclonal antibody treatments in early tests
Preliminary experiments suggest that most of the monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid-19 are powerless against Omicron. More...
Preprint: Omicron now binds to mouse ACE2
“Here, we show that the Omicron RBD binds to human ACE2 with enhanced affinity relative to the Wuhan-Hu-1 RBD and acquires binding to mouse ACE2.” More...
Vaccines: Pfizer CEO says fourth dose of vaccine may be needed sooner than expected
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Wednesday that people might need a fourth Covid-19 shot sooner than expected after preliminary research shows the new Omicron variant can undermine protective antibodies generated by the vaccine the company developed with BioNTech. More...
FFP2 masks more effective at preventing Covid infection than vaccines
Max Planck: “When both wear a surgical mask, while the infectious is speaking, the very conservative upper bound remains below 30% after 1h, but, when both wear a well-fitting FFP2 mask, it is 0.4%”
We find, for a typical SARS-CoV-2 viral load and infectious dose, that social distancing alone, even at 3m between two speaking individuals, leads to an upper bound of 90% for risk of infection after a few minutes. More...
Omicron: The world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”
The emergence of the Omicron variant shows that the world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned, as he lamented a lack of political leadership over Covid. More...
UKHSA risk assessment for Omicron variant
UK risk assessment for Omicron variant B.1.1.529, dated 3rd December 2021
Transmissibility between humans: Amber – At least as transmissible as currently circulating variants
Omicron is transmitting rapidly and successfully. More...
Preprint: Increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection associated with emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa
332 individuals were identified who had three suspected infections. More...