This Month
Anti-vax claims flood Senate inquiry. Officials say they’re wrong
The ABS, Health Department and actuaries say there is no evidence to support claims there were more deaths from non-COVID causes due to government vaccine mandates during the pandemic.
- Tom Burton
February
COVID-19 causes lasting cognitive, memory damage: major study
“Brain fog” was detectable in long and short-term cases, a detailed study suggests.
- Pam Belluck
January
Controlling COVID ‘at all costs’ went too far: ex-deputy health chief
Officials persisted with policies despite the changing nature of the pandemic, while state powers on lockdowns need to be reined in, Dr Nick Coatsworth said.
- John Kehoe
December 2023
COVID-19 warning ahead of New Year’s Eve parties
Case numbers are soaring across Australia, with experts warning that low testing rates mean infection rates are much higher than official tallies suggest.
- Hannah Wootton
October 2023
Crescent Capital claims stake in clinical trials biz Walski
Michael Alscher’s healthcare-focused private equity firm is making another play in its favourite sector.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
September 2023
It’s back: UK ramps up COVID jabs amid fears over Pirola variant
The “most concerning variant since omicron” spurs an early start, and more money, for England’s winter vaccination campaign.
- Hans van Leeuwen
May 2023
Needle-free vaccines take the sting out of child immunisation
Results from new clinical trials on young children show injection-free vaccine patches are as safe and as effective as conventional jabs.
- Ben Farmer
April 2023
Flu, COVID-19 jabs encouraged before a ‘triple pandemic’ arrives
Authorities are warning that modelling from the Northern Hemisphere winter indicates the flu season will arrive earlier than expected in Australia and be worse than last year.
- Phoebe Loomes and Duncan Murray
February 2023
The summer omicron wave is over but the next one is around the corner
COVID-19 case numbers have bottomed out, but early data shows they are rising again, marking the beginning of a new omicron wave.
- Tom Burton
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Do you really need another COVID-19 vaccine?
On the second anniversary of the start of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the government is about to launch a new vaccination push. Here are the pros and cons.
- Jill Margo
January 2023
Critics say COVID-19 jabs kill young men. Do they have proof?
Social media is rife with speculation that the vaccine is responsible for increased deaths. But there’s little evidence for the conspiracies.
- Sarah Knapton
BHP could drop vaccination requirement for workers
The mining giant was one of the earliest and longest adopters of compulsory vaccination but is preparing to scale back its mandate at a time when the industry has been hit with skill shortages.
- David Marin-Guzman
US says no strong link between Pfizer booster and strokes
Experts investigated early signs that the bivalent booster was linked to an increased risk of stroke in older people - but found no evidence to confirm it.
- Laurie McGinley and Lena H. Sun
December 2022
The states yet to be hit by COVID Christmas wave
Outbreaks of COVID-19 in NSW and Victoria appear to have peaked but cases and hospital admissions are still rising sharply in Queensland and South Australia.
- Tom Burton
How the pandemic changed Australia in 2020 (in 9 charts)
The 2020 edition of the influential HILDA survey provides detailed insights into how Australians coped in the first few months of COVID-19.
- Michael Read
‘COVID soup’ fuelling longer infection wave
An explosion in omicron mutants has created a soup of coronavirus subvariants and a national patchwork of case outbreaks.
- Tom Burton
November 2022
University of Queensland restarts vaccine trials after HIV false positives
Almost two years after abandoning its vaccine thanks to false positive HIV test results, the University of Queensland is entering human trials again on its homegrown savour from COVID.
- Yolanda Redrup
Workers told to stay home as COVID-19 ‘variant soup’ drives wave
At least 79,700 people contracted coronavirus in the seven days to last Thursday, more than double the 33,600 weekly infections recorded in the final week of October.
- Michael Read
COVID-19 cases jump 38pc in a week
But experts say high levels of immunity from vaccines and earlier infections are helping keep the case count in check.
- Michael Read
Western Australia winning the war against omicron deaths
Western Australia has been the most successful state at constraining COVID-19 deaths.
- Tom Burton
