What's That Rash?

It's a question that we've been asking since the very beginning of the pandemic: when will it really end?It's easy to think that because people are vaccinated and less attention is paid to COVID, it's over. In reality more than 5000 people have died of COVID this year, and the disease burden rises every time there's a new variant.On today's Coronacast, a chat with Professor Brendan Crabb, an infectious disease expert who heads up the Burnet Institute on how he thinks the past several years have gone, and whether COVID will remain a forever virus.

The COVID pandemic brought on a whole bunch of change to nearly everyone in the world.All of a sudden people were under lockdowns, out of work, unable to see their loved ones, even fighting for their lives. But ever so steadily, things have improved. Vaccines came along and we tried to get back to normal.  But for some that’s not so easy. According to a survey from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - we’re feeling less lonely than we were in the early days of the pandemic.But, sadly, it’s not all great news. That’s on this week’s Coronacast.

One of the big scary unknowns that remains with COVID is long-COVID.There are hundreds of thousands of Australians with the condition.But little bit by little bit, researchers are working out more and more about it.And in some good news - it seems that the risk of long-COVID has fallen over the last couple of years. Also, why shoving certain drugs up your nose might help avoid COVID in the first place.That’s on this week’s Coronacast

In the early days of COVID, it seemed like we were getting new variants of concern every few months.Wuhan led to Alpha then to Delta via a side trip to Beta for parts of the world.But ever since Omicron came in like a wrecking ball at the end of 2021... sure there has been a lot of new sub-variants, but no new challenger to take on the Big Boss.So could Omicron be the final variant? Are things starting to settle down? Will saying this mean a new variant is around the corner?All the big questions on this week's Coroncast.

It seems like a mere week ago that we were talking about the last new variant - because it was only a week ago.Move over Eris, there's a new variant in town: Pirola. Unlike most of the recent strains going around, this one branched off further back in the Omicron family tree. But what of the usual questions: is it better at evading immunity? Does it cause worse disease? How do I protect myself? Also, how normal is it for a virus to mutate this much? Is it really moving this quickly, or is just because we're watching it so closely? That's on this week's Coronacast.  

Wherever you look, viruses are going into and coming out of animals.Mostly this happens without much fanfare, though occasionally it causes big problems.Which is why it's concerning that researchers in Europe have started to sound the alarm about fur farms in Europe and other researchers looking at pig farms have found more swine flu variants than they expected.So what's going on?References:Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a living guideline, 10 August 2023Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection on multiple fur farms in the South and Central Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, July 2023The genomic landscape of swine influenza A viruses in Southeast Asia

If you think that excavating your nose is a harmless if somewhat disgusting habit - think again.A new study reckons you could emerge with COVID-19.Other studies worry about how forgetful having your fingernail so close to the brain might make you. And have you ever given thought to your nasal microbiome much less what our primate cousins get up to (hint: it's even more disgusting)?We drill deep on rhinotillexis.ReferencesRhinotillexomania: psychiatric disorder or habit?A review of nose picking in primates with new evidence of its occurrence in Daubentonia madagascariensisStaphylococcus aureus and the ecology of the nasal microbiome

We've said it before and we'll say it again - make sure you get your booster dose. But what, you ask, is in it for me? How likely am I to be the one who dodges severe disease? Well a new study has quantified this. It's a number familiar to epidemiologists - the number needed to treat to prevent a certain outcome. Also this week: where are we at with repurposing existing drugs to prevent COVID? What's happening with flu numbers? And who was Tegan's surprise fluffy office visitor?

In the early days of COVID, we used wastewater surveillance to spot undetected community transmission.Our sewage gave public health authorities early alerts that COVID was spreading.Wastewater surveillance also gives information on sub variants: what's on the rise and what's in decline.But there's other stuff in wastewater - and it's downright criminal. That's captured on today's rather smelly Coronacast.References:A common allele of HLA is associated with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infectionViral and antibody dynamics of acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant (B.1.529): a prospective cohort study from Shenzhen, China

A lot has been said about COVID antivirals, especially on how they might help bring down the number of deaths from the disease.But occasionally an interesting phenomenon occurs: a patient takes the antiviral drugs, feels better, only to come down with COVID again.So how do COVID antivirals work and why does the rebound sometimes happen?