There's still so much to learn about COVID, and this week we have two big things about Long COVID and how long we spread the virus. Firstly, a recent study has drawn a link between hand grip strength and post Long COVID symptoms, especially when it comes to who gets it and how badly. And secondly, a study from Hong Kong has tried to nail down what's going on in a person's immune system and how that effects the duration of shedding the virus. That's on this week's Coronacast. (And please note, we're taking the next few weeks off! But we'll be back in October)

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 2023 Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection on multiple fur farms in the South and Central Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, July 2023 The 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. References Rhinotillexomania: psychiatric disorder or habit? A review of nose picking in primates with new evidence of its occurrence in Daubentonia madagascariensis Staphylococcus 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 infection Viral 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?

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.