What's That Rash?

It's the depths of winter, and every second person you know has a cold of some sort. Most are mild but some can hit hard - as we all know from COVID and influenza. But what about the third virus in the unholy trinity of winter bugs? RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is tracking a lot higher than usual for this time of year. Who's most at risk, how can you protect yourself, and how much do the numbers have to do with increased testing overall? Oh, and what does "syncytial" even mean? 

It was a massive question at the start of the pandemic: is Sweden's strategy of keeping things open a better way forward?Zoom ahead a few years, and it's still on the minds of Coronacast listeners.This week, we're digging into what happened in Sweden and we also answer a question about the psychological impact of the pandemic on teenagers.Everything and more, on this week's Coronacast.Ask a question here: https://yourquestions.abc.net.au/hc/en-au/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360002468535

Our immune system does an amazing job keeping us healthy - but it works in mysterious ways, especially when it comes into contact with novel viruses like SARS-CoV-2.We've talked a bit before about imprinting - the concept where the first time your immune system sees a virus can determine how it'll react to that virus in the future.And a recent study in the prestigious journal Science has found the Omicron variant could be taking advantage of that - possibly showing why people seem to be getting repeat Omicron infections.So what could this mean for public vaccination strategy and our risk of reinfection?

We've all heard that COVID spreads in clusters and sometimes the cluster comes from a single person who can infect nearly everyone around them.They're superspreaders and it's been opaque how much virus a superspreader is actually responsible for spreading around.Now a study has found that in a group of deliberately infected people, just two of them were responsible for nearly 90 percent of all the virus emitted - even though they only had mild symptoms.

Sometimes a study comes along that shows some amazing results and one published in The Lancet does just that.The study - which looked at people aged between 30 and 85 who were overweight or had obesity - has found a "globally available, low-cost, and safe" diabetes drug called metformin could drastically reduce the instances of long COVID by 40 per cent.Sadly they didn't find the same results with ivermectin (and they looked).So what could be going on? How could this old drug be so good at what it's doing? And how could this drug be used to help bring down long COVID cases?That's on this week's Coronacast - along with a clarification of NSW hospital data and antiviral prescriptions.Or watch us on YouTube here

Tegan has been playing away, making another show.It's called Quick Smart, and because you're such a loyal Coronacast listener, we'll give you a preview here. If you like it, please find the Quick Smart feed and subscribe! This first ep is about something weird that's happened in the last 12 months or so - the fact that all your friends - and perhaps you as well - have ADHD now.So where did this ADHD spike come from? Just how big is the gap between people seeking treatment and those able to give it? And if people are being overdiagnosed, or underdiagnosed, or diagnosed with the wrong thing... what are the risks?Check it out here!

The public health measures we relied on in years past to control COVID have now largely gone.Social distancing is no more and there aren't nearly as many masks around as there once was and we're grossly under-immunised.So what about antivirals? Could making them more available to more people be a way to reduce the amount of severe disease and limit the waves of COVID?Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE7At1S7tho

Long COVID has nearly been around as long as COVID itself. It wasn't long after the pandemic began before we started hearing about long haulers - people who were suffering from the virus long after testing negative.But even today, we still don't know the precise definitions of what exactly long COVID is and how many people suffer from it.But we are getting closer to a clearer picture. So why is it important to know?

In 2021, Aussies were queueing round the block quite literally for COVID-19 vaccines one and two.

As respiratory disease goes, COVID got us good. But it's important we don't forget the old school ones like flu and RSV.There's quite a bit of flu around at the moment too. It could even be described as a surge. So what's going on? Why are we being attacked by COVID, flu and RSV all at once?Also on today's show:* Remember that time a stranger made Norman stick something up his nose in an abandoned dungeon? * What's going on in China now that they've dropped COVID restrictions?