World Coronavirus Dispatch: Is natural immunity better than a vaccine?

Scientists probe earlier exposure in Asia, WHO pulled report on Italy's 'chaotic' first response to Covid, Not one case in Victoria for 37 days and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Mass vaccinations are beginning. but they’re not all the same

Across the world, mass vaccination campaigns are beginning, or just about to. Russia began its campaign on Saturday. Britain will start its campaign on Tuesday. The United States hopes to start large-scale vaccinations this month, as does Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been vaccinated in China, and thousands in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. But the mass vaccination efforts differ in one profound way: Some rely on a vaccine that has completed human trials — and some do not. Read more...

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 66,540,034

Change Over Yesterday: 614,660

Global deaths: 1,528,868

Nations with most cases: US (14,581,337), India (9,644,222), Brazil (6,577,177), Russia (2,410,462), France(2,334,626).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center
 

WHO pulled report on Italy’s ‘chaotic’ first response to Covid

Italy’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “improvised” and “chaotic” according to a World Health Organization report that was taken down from the agency’s website just hours after publication in May. According to the document, Italy’s decentralised approach to public health policy, as well as delays in testing and tracing potential Covid-19 infections, contributed to worsening the outcome of the first phase of the pandemic. In a written response, the WHO said the document was removed by the WHO’s European Office because it contained “factual errors in some of the data and statistics” but declined to provide specific details. Read more...

Switzerland riles Alpine neighbours by keeping its ski resorts open

Across the Alps, in Austria, France, Germany and Italy, ski resorts will be closed for at least a month due to fears that an influx of people will spread the virus. As a result, the winter tourism that is the single most important economic sector in the Alpine regions will be put on hold over its busiest period. But Switzerland — for now — is the exception. The country has refused to enforce closures of ski resorts. As a result skiing has become an unlikely, but bitter, political faultline dividing European countries as they seek a response to the latest phase of the pandemic. Read more...

Scientists investigate earlier coronavirus exposure in Asia

An enduring mystery of the Covid-19 pandemic is why East Asian countries across the board have experienced far fewer cases and deaths than the US and Europe. Some doctors and scientists are beginning to take a closer look at theories that some people in East Asia and Southeast Asia have had different exposure to previous coronaviruses resembling the SARS-CoV-2 virus sweeping the globe. Such exposure could have protected them from getting sick from Covid-19 or lessened the severity of the disease. Read more...

Victoria eases Covid restrictions again as it reaches 37 days without a case

Victoria has announced a significant easing of its Covid-19 restrictions in time for summer, allowing households to receive 30 visitors a day, relaxing mask-wearing rules, and increasing public gatherings to 100. Victoria, once the worst hit state in the country, has now had 37 straight days free of Covid-19. Private offices can welcome back 50 per cent of their employees, up from the current 25 per cent. Public sector workplaces will bring back 25 per cent of their employees. Nightclubs will also be able to reopen. Read more...

Specials

Is ‘natural immunity’ better than a vaccine?

Now that vaccines are almost certain, there are arguments that surviving a bout of Covid-19 confers greater protection, and poses fewer risks, than getting vaccinated. Experts caution about the approach saying it’s difficult to predict who will survive an infection unscathed. Given many unknowns, choosing the disease over the vaccine is a very bad decision and by far the dangerous option. When asked what produces a stronger immune response: a natural infection or a vaccine? They leaned towards Covid-19 vaccines as they have predictably prevented illness, and are a far safer bet. Natural immunity from the coronavirus might be quite strong by producing some antibodies of immune cells, but the immune response varies from person to person. Read more...

Anosmia: How Covid brought loss of smell centre stage

Over the past eight months, traditional medical perceptions of anosmia, the medical term for temporary or permanent smell loss, have changed. Usually, Anosmia can occur as part of the ageing process, but also in those of all ages due to factors ranging from broken noses to viral infections. The Sars-CoV-2 virus has proved particularly adept at knocking out our sense of smell, and for the first time, the plight of people with smell loss has been thrust well and truly into the spotlight. Somewhere between 44 per cent and 77 per cent of Covid patients experience complete loss of smell during the acute stage of their illness. Read more...