Misinformation about the effectiveness of the test is swirling, but in fact the PCR is both reliable and critical in taking on the virus, explains Siouxsie Wiles. I’ve been asked by several people in recent days whether there is any truth to a video about the Covid-19 PCR test that is currently doing the rounds … Read more
Is there life on Venus? A multinational team of astronomers using high-altitude infrared telescopes in Hawaii and Chile have identified the gas phosphine in the upper atmosphere of the planet. So what? The significance of this discovery is that phosphine is regarded as a biosignature, possible evidence of microbial life, as Duncan Steel explains. Venus … Read more
Tech start-up Areto Labs noticed online abuse was stopping women from going into politics – so it did something about it. CEO Lana Cuthbertson and creative technologist Jacqueline Comer talk to The Spinoff about their abuse-fighting bot. “Imagine you have a job interview and every day, for a month, you have to walk down a … Read more
Futurist and evolutionary biologist Robert Hickson (Science Media Centre) on the known and as-yet-unknown aspects of the virus. What we know 1. We know where the virus ultimately came from We know that the virus originally came from bats, and most probably a species of horseshoe bat in South East Asia. However, the spike protein … Read more
With over 24 million confirmed cases and more than 820,000 people dead, Covid-19 is playing out differently in various parts of the world. To understand this a little better, Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris walk you through the Covid-19 ‘triangle’. Since this pandemic started, I’ve been getting lots of messages from people and hearing an … Read more
Dr Michelle Wise, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist, answers some of the most frequently asked questions from pregnant women right now. Are pregnant women more vulnerable than non-pregnant women in getting Covid-19? The short answer is no. The research from around the world shows that pregnant women are not more likely than non-pregnant adults to … Read more
New Zealand’s response to the pandemic has won global plaudits – but there is still much room for improvement, write a trio of University of Otago public health experts. This week marks six months since New Zealand’s first Covid-19 case was identified on February 26. So far New Zealand has been largely in reactive mode, … Read more
New Zealand’s second outbreak of Covid-19 prompted new systems, such as sequencing of viral genomes, to swing into action – and they’ve quickly proved their worth. Genome sequencing – mapping the genetic sequences of the virus from confirmed Covid-19 cases in a bid to track its spread – is now an integral part of New … Read more
With the re-emergence of Covid-19 in Aotearoa, here’s a reminder of what some of the most important epidemiology terms we’re hearing actually mean. Contacts Let’s start with close and casual contacts. A contact is basically a person who has had some kind of encounter with someone who has or is suspected of having Covid-19. People … Read more
New research suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, people with little sense of control over their lives aren’t any more susceptible than others to conspiracy theories. While conspiracy theories have been around since the Middle Ages and its blood libels, in the past couple of decades they’ve experiencing something of a boom, with the rise … Read more
The simple rules for wearing face masks during levels two and three – and how they can effectively limit the spread of Covid-19 Lots of people might be wondering why we’re now being asked to wear face masks when we didn’t use them the first time we were stamping out Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand. … Read more
The Covid resurgence cluster is now at 29 confirmed cases, with one further unlinked case. Chris McDowall presents the latest information in visual form. With thanks to the Science Media Centre. Information about the resurgence of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is changing rapidly. These posts collate the most recent statistics … Read more
The Covid resurgence cluster is now at 17 people. Chris McDowall presents the latest information in visual form. With thanks to the Science Media Centre. At today’s 1pm press briefing the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, announced 13 new cases of Covid-19 detected outside isolation or quarantine in the Auckland region. All of these … Read more
The health workers and contact tracers are out on the front lines, but in the backrooms teams of mathematicians are running scenarios to figure out exactly what needs to be done, and how bad things could get. In big picture terms, fighting a pandemic is a numbers game, but with real world consequences. To succeed, … Read more
The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another. As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, raised genome sequencing – … Read more
The prime minister has announced Auckland will go into alert level three, and the rest of the country alert level two, after four cases of the coronavirus were detected in a family with no known link to overseas travel or existing cases. Via the Science Media Centre, the experts on what it means. Shaun Hendy: … Read more
The MacDiarmid Institute DiscoveryCamp gives Māori and Pasifika high school students a taste of life as a scientist. Teuila Fuatai finds the experience often leads to much more. Eden Skipper loves eeling. “It is a family tradition,” he says proudly. The 22-year-old of Ngāi Tahu descent grew up on the east coast of Canterbury, near … Read more
As the state of Victoria continues to record shocking new Covid-19 numbers – 671 cases today – a strict new stage 4 lockdown is being imposed. Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist at the University of South Australia, explains what that means. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that metropolitan Melbourne will move to “stage 4” restrictions … Read more
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. Dr Siouxsie Wiles explains what these positive tests could mean. They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are different … Read more
The R number, the classic measure of how easily an infectious disease spreads, is how New Zealand crushed community transmission. But it’s also a clever guide to a much bigger picture, writes Jenny Nicholls. Predicting how the global Covid-19 pandemic will progress can seem impossible, with graphs of cases from other countries beginning to look … Read more
Well over 150 vaccine candidates for Covid-19 are in development, and they take a myriad of forms. Siouxsie Wiles helps make sense of the different approaches, with illustration by Toby Morris. For more Siouxsie-Toby collaborations, see here. With the exciting news that two Covid-19 vaccine candidates (Oxford/AstraZeneca and CanSino Biological Inc/Beijing Institute of Biotechnology) have … Read more
Less than 2mm when they hatch, sunfish grow to become the largest bony fish in the world. Little is known about them in their early stages, but one Auckland-based scientist has helped make a major genetic breakthrough in sunfish research for the first time. As far as fish go, sunfish are pretty funny-looking creatures. They … Read more
Results of two vaccine trials are in and the news is encouraging. Siouxsie Wiles explains what it all means, and what happens next. As the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 approaches 15 million, with more than 600,000 deaths around the world, there is at least some positive news on the vaccine front. The results … Read more
New Zealand has erected statues and carried out elaborate tributes for a ragtag collection of fools and racists. Hayden Donnell asks why we haven’t we memorialised one of our greatest residents, Nigel the gannet. To give and not expect return, that is what lies at the heart of love – Oscar Wilde Mana Island is … Read more
While there are increasing examples of a return to some lockdown measures, there is little evidence to demonstrate the success of a second lockdown, because it’s too early to tell, write Maximilian de Courten, Bojana Klepac Pogrmilovic and Rosemary V Calder of Victoria University, Melbourne. The World Health Organisation reported more than 230,000 new Covid-19 cases … Read more
A new breed of medical researchers and ecologists are working together to address the fundamental disconnect between humans and nature, which they say could help solve New Zealand’s worsening public health issues. We’ve all watched aghast as the impacts of Covid-19 destroy lives and wreak havoc on medical systems worldwide, by overwhelming exhausted staff and … Read more
Anxiety is totally understandable, and there have been a few own goals. But what we’re seeing is no great surprise, and it’s no time to panic, writes Siouxsie Wiles. After weeks of no new cases of Covid-19, in the last week we’ve recorded nine. That’s sounds pretty scary, but here’s why there’s no reason to … Read more
The World Health Organisation pulled its support for acupuncture in 2014. The Ministry of Health has found barely any evidence of its efficacy. So why is ACC still paying out millions for acupuncture treatment? This investigation is made possible by Spinoff Members. To support independent, homegrown journalism, donate today. There are about 650 practitioners of … Read more
New Zealand has been lauded for its response to Covid-19, but the fastest country to act was Taiwan, which has gone 64 days without a new locally transmitted case. So why has it been overlooked? When New Zealand announced on June 8 that it had reached the significant milestone of zero active Covid-19 cases, the … Read more