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Will European lockdowns work or are they too weak? Nov 02, 2020

Show notes

Melbourne's three-month lockdown was a long and gruelling slog, but eventually the city was able to reopen with very low levels of coronavirus still around.

The same almost certainly won't be true for major European countries, which are increasingly being forced into winter lockdowns to try and save their health systems from collapsing.

England, France, Belgium and Austria have all recently announced a form of lockdown or social distancing restrictions.

So with coronavirus really taking off in Europe, will the lockdowns work?

Also on today's show:

* What does the Coronacast team think of the various curfew measures in Europe right now?

* If I were to be in a room with someone for a long period of time, does it make any difference if I gave them a hug when I saw them?

Why the next big vaccine milestone might be only 4-6 weeks away Oct 30, 2020

Show notes

All year we've been hearing a vaccine was 12 to 18 months away, and annoyingly it never seemed to change.

But when you talk to the experts, it seems we're much closer to the next vaccine milestone than you might expect.

And that milestone is finding out if any of the good quality frontrunner candidates work or not. The timeline? Possibly only 4-6 weeks away.

On today's Coronacast, we're joined by vaccine expert Terry Nolan who describes what the vaccine front might look like by Christmas.

GUEST:

Professor Terry Nolan

Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Murdoch Children's Research Institute

Why the worsening pandemic overseas is a risk to Australia Oct 29, 2020

Show notes

As the coronavirus pandemic speeds up overseas in Europe and America, it's putting pressure on Australia's hotel quarantine system.

Pressure is building because of the higher chance that arrivals will test positive and the increase in demand from Australians wanting to come home.

With more positive cases, the risk of a coronavirus escaping quarantine increases, potentially triggering another major outbreak like what happened in Victoria.

So on today's Coronacast, is it time to revisit the old idea of opening specialist quarantine stations to help?

Also on today's show:

* Like everyone else in Melbourne I'm so excited to be coming out of lockdown, but after the initial euphoria of the announcement, and no new cases/deaths, I've just been feeling absolutely exhausted.

* What does Norman mean when he says that a vaccine might be only 50 percent effective against getting COVID-19 disease?

Forget herd immunity... does immunity last at all? Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

There are several strategies when trying to control coronavirus - ranging from hard suppression to herd immunity.

The idea behind herd immunity is to let the virus spread through a population in manageable numbers with the hope that when enough recover, it won't have anywhere else to go.

But that relies on humans remaining immune.

Today: why a recent yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study has thrown more doubt on the herd immunity theory.

Also on this show:

* What's the latest with the Russian vaccine?

* Is it safe to go back into shopping centres in Melbourne while wearing a mask?

And Norman has some research from Nature on our good friend the D614G spike protein mutation, and why it mightn't be worth worrying about too much.

Victoria takes a deep breath and opens up! Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

It's been months in the making, but finally Victoria has taken a deep breath and reopened.

As of 11:59pm tonight, the Victorian lockdown will officially end and many of the most significant restrictions will be removed or wound back.

Yesterday saw zero new cases, the first time since June 9th.

So as the state opens up, what challenges await and what can the rest of the country learn?

On today's show:

* Learning to live a COVID normal life

* The CDC changes its definition of what a close contact is

* Norman and Tegan jump back into the jobby waters on sewage testing

* What does Norman make of 9-12 month estimates before a vaccine could be rolled out across the country?

Why did Victoria hesitate to remove restrictions? Oct 26, 2020

Show notes

On Friday, the Premier Daniel Andrews and Victorian health authorities sounded confident that coronavirus restrictions could be relaxed on Sunday.

But 48 hours later, something changed.

Daniel Andrews says despite the state recording just seven coronavirus infections in the last day, he doesn't believe it's safe enough to completely reopen Victoria yet.

So why did Victoria hesitate to remove restrictions?

Also on the show:

* What happens if after months of lockdown you're now too scared to leave the house?

* An update on whether masks are giving you just enough virus to give you some immunity

* If you're wearing a mask on a plane, can you take it off to eat and drink?

We can't be cut off from the world forever. How do we reopen? Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

As Australian states and territories take small steps to reopening internal borders, it raises the question of when international borders might be able to reopen too.

Closing the country's borders with the rest of the world has been successful in managing the risk of coronavirus entering Australia undetected.

But at the moment we have a very simple one size fits all approach: every single international arrival, except for New Zealand, goes into mandatory 14 day quarantine.

So is it time to rethink it?

On today's show:

* With an outbreak in Melbourne's northern suburbs, is the city ready to reopen?

* Rethinking our international border restrictions. Could we reopen to more countries?

And it's also time for another round of Quick Fire Friday!

Is giving people coronavirus on purpose ethical? Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

In an effort to help speed up the development of a coronavirus vaccine, a group of healthy young people in the UK will be deliberately infected.

It's known as a human challenge study - and it's not used often due to the risk to the participants.

Making it even more risky, there is no foolproof treatment for COVID-19 if a participant starts to go rapidly downhill.

While the researchers say the rewards outweigh the risks, it raises the question if anyone can really give informed consent for the trial as there's still so much we don't know.

Also on today's show

* What do we know about the possible reinfection in Victoria?

* How bad is the pandemic getting in America?

* Can Norman please use the term 'jobbie' when referring to his favourite topic?

Is Europe copying Victoria's lockdown strategy? Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

As the number of coronavirus cases in Europe continues to grow and concerns mount that hospitals may again not be able to cope, governments are turning to lockdowns.

In Ireland, the Government has announced that the country will move to its highest level of restrictions for the next six weeks.

The restrictions are similar to what Victorians have spent the last several months dealing with: 5km movement limits, tightly controlled retail and strict limits on wedding and funerals.

So on today's Coronacast, are European countries looking to Melbourne's response for their lockdown strategies?

Also on today's show:

* Some people at my office continue to cough at work. As manager, am I being over the top if I ask them to work from home and get tested?

* If we can test for virus in sewage, why can't we use people's urine/faeces to test for virus instead of only saliva/nose samples?

* Are third or fourth waves our next concern?

What happens if we don't get a vaccine? This is what 'COVID normal' looks like Oct 20, 2020

Show notes

Everyone's waiting for the day a university or a pharmaceutical company makes the big announcement: a vaccine for COVID-19 has been developed and it works well.

But until then, the best thing we can do for our mental health is start preparing for a lifestyle called "COVID-normal".

As Australian state borders slowly reopen, and COVID-free states once again allow internal travellers, life will start looking a bit like it used to.

Today: until a vaccine is found, life won't be exactly the same and we'll have to find a middle ground and get used to being tested a lot more.

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