<
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-21/covid-safe-strategies-australian-scientists-virus-infection/103335466>
'When Brendan Crabb finally caught COVID-19 for the first time late last year,
it was because he'd broken his own rule — he took a risk he says he shouldn't
have. Since 2020, Professor Crabb, director and chief executive of the Burnet
Institute, had been sticking to a rigorous anti-COVID routine, effectively
using layers of protections to avoid getting the virus.
And then in a moment of lapsed judgement, he joined a crowd of hundreds of
people at an awards event in a small room in Sydney, without his portable air
purifier and N95 mask. "The waiters couldn't even get to us to give us a
drink," he says — it was that tightly packed. "That's a situation I never get
myself into … and three days later, I tested positive."
Fast-forward a couple of months and a similar story has been playing out for
thousands of Australians as COVID-19 surges again. Partly it's because the
highly mutated new subvariant JN.1 has driven a worldwide spike in infections,
hospitalisations and deaths. But it's also probably because so many of the
precautions we used to embrace — masking, testing and isolating, vaccination —
have been abandoned, deemed unnecessary by those who think the danger has
passed, or who misguidedly believe COVID-19 is "just a cold" or necessary to
catch for immunity.
Some commentators have described this situation — the crashing of wave after
wave of COVID-19, a steady drip, drip, drip of death and mounting chronic
illness — as the "new normal". But other experts insist it doesn't have to be,
and that continuing on the current trajectory is unsustainable — especially in
light of data showing that COVID has decreased life expectancy, will cost the
global economy an estimated $US13.8 trillion by 2024, and is decimating the
lives of millions of people who have developed long COVID.
Meanwhile, studies continue to pile up showing COVID-19 can cause serious
illness affecting every organ system in the body, even in vaccinated people
with seemingly mild infections. It can cause cognitive decline and dysfunction
consistent with brain injury; trigger immune damage and dysfunction; impair
liver, kidney and lung function; and significantly increases the risk of
cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Then there's long COVID, a debilitating
disease that robs fit and high-functioning people of their ability to think,
work and exercise.
All of this is why governments must invest in long-term strategies for managing
COVID-19 into the future, experts say — particularly by introducing standards
for indoor air quality. But until then, they say, Australians can and should
take precautions against COVID-19 to reduce transmission and protect their
health. And doing so is relatively simple: it just takes a little planning,
preparation and common sense.
Here, three of Australia's leading COVID-19 experts share their personal COVID
safety strategies and reflect on what must happen if we're to blunt the growing
health crisis the pandemic is causing — and prepare for the next one.'
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: January 25, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-97166797
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
