COVID-19

There was much discussion and controversy surrounding the origin of the virus in the early days, which is yet to be fully settled. One of the early papers that discussed this was the nature medicine article in March 2020 by Kristian Andersen. While the authors refute the lab engineered theory in the article, Dr. Andersen's very early communications with Dr. Faucy in January of the same year have now come to light. This analysis by Jim Jordan is interesting When it comes to how and why Dr. Andersen changed his views. In this article  in the NY times, he gives his side of the story. TBC

TGA   Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN)  is where all suspected side effect reports following vaccination are collated in collaboration with state level databases like  SAEFVIC  in Victoria. It is commonly reported in the media by politicians, epidemiologists, CHOs etc that all adverse events post vaccination are monitored by the TGA. However, the reality is that the TGA depends on health practitioners and the general public to report them. I quote from the TGA  website :  " The TGA encourages health professionals and consumers to report suspected side effects following immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines. Every report is valuable and contributes to our safety monitoring." The TGA claims to collect data of adverse events presenting after the administration of any medication irrespective of causality being established. This is good practice and a requirement in any data set that is to be used for statistical inference purposes - to ascertain if there is an increas

Background The Australian vaccination program was slow, inefficient and riddled with political interference for the better part of the first half of 2021. ScoMo famously - or notoriously, depending on one's opinion - said in the very outset that it was not a race. Come winter and the outbreaks that come with it (seriously, did no one predict that?), NSW and VIC was plunged into never ending lockdowns. This is when the above statement came back to bite the PM, in particular with the Victorian Labor government wasting no time in shifting the blame to the commonwealth in a desperate effort to divert attention from its own shortcomings. For the average Victorian, it was just dejavu.  With a federal election looming, ScoMo had to turn the tide and get ready for his endgame. Enter Doherty Institute's modelling  on the national plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response. I will not go into the intricate details of the different scenarios proposed by the modelling here,

Case study - Melbourne, Australia On 22nd March 2020, the Premier announced that the government will implement a shutdown of "all non-essential activity" across the state to combat the spread of Coronavirus within 48 hours. "This is not something that we do lightly, but it’s clear that if we don’t take this step, more Victorians will contract coronavirus, our hospitals will be overwhelmed and more Victorians will die. Victorians will still be able to go to the supermarket, the bank, the pharmacy and other essential stores, like petrol stations and convenience stores. Freight, logisitics and home delivery are also considered essential and will remain open. I will also inform National Cabinet that school holidays will be brought forward in Victoria, starting on Tuesday 24 March." On 28th March 2020, Melbourne entered into a Stage 3 lockdown, and all incoming international passengers were placed in hotel quarantine for 14 days. Victoria Police has been given the power