Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Australians and New Zealanders can now say kia ora or g'day in person, courtesy of the freshly inflated travel bubble between the two nations. And Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also flagged the possibility of reinstating limited overseas travel to other places too. Eventually, Australia will inevitably have to reopen its borders to the wider world. So what is the exact risk in doing so?
Epidemiologist Tony Blakely
explains it will depend on three broad factors: not just how many Australians are vaccinated, but also the number of COVID cases in the countries from which travellers are arriving, and the specific ways in which their quarantine and social distancing are handled once they arrive on our shores.
To take two pertinent examples, this means the risk of allowing in visitors from the UK, where until recently up to 2% of the entire population was infected at a given time, is greater than welcoming those from China, where per capita infection numbers have been much lower. The risk can be reduced further with an effective vaccine rollout and strong quarantine and monitoring. But because the risk depends on the coronavirus situation in any visitor’s homeland, we can expect the overall risks to fluctuate dramatically over the coming months.
Speaking of the vaccine rollout, news emerged last week we’ll probably need a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine within 12 months of being immunised, and a fresh dose every year as our immunity wanes and new variants of the virus emerge. As viral immunologist Nathan Bartlett
explains, one advantage of these mRNA vaccines is they’re much easier and quicker to update than other types — so Australia should prioritise mRNA COVID vaccines such as Pfizer in the long term.
Michael Hopkin
Editor, Science + Technology, Health + Medicine
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What’s the risk if Australia opens its international borders? An epidemiologist explains
Tony Blakely, The University of Melbourne
The amount of risk from overseas arrivals depends not just on Australia's vaccination rates, but also on the particular circumstances of the country from which people are travelling.
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Paul Zinken/AP/AAP
3 doses, then 1 each year: why Pfizer, not AstraZeneca, is the best bet for the long haul
Nathan Bartlett, University of Newcastle
Our best long-term strategy is to rely on the mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.
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Richard Wainwright/AAP
View from The Hill: Dutton humiliates defence force chief Angus Campbell over citation
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The political power of veterans is being put on show - as the government announces plans for a royal commission into veteran suicide.
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Moving the Line video screenshot/Good Society
Not only are some of the government’s consent videos bizarre and confusing, many reinforce harmful gender stereotypes
Amanda Keddie, Deakin University
A gender-justice researcher reviewed the entire newly released government sexuality education resource for teachers. She found several significant problems.
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Shutterstock
Privacy erosion by design: why the Federal Court should throw the book at Google over location data tracking
Jeannie Marie Paterson, The University of Melbourne; Elise Bant, The University of Western Australia
To deter Google and other big tech companies from misleading users about data collection, the Federal Court should impose heavy fines.
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www.shutterstock.com
COVID-19 cost more in 2020 than the world’s combined natural disasters in any of the past 20 years
Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Nguyen Doan, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Measuring the equivalent economic cost of 'lost life years' due to the pandemic allows us to map the true scale of the crisis.
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original.
Forget JobKeeper — what the government and the country need now is a JabMaker plan
Mark Kenny, Australian National University
Australia was promised a world-class vaccine program. But instead of a rollout, we got an eekout.
Arts + Culture
Business + Economy
Science + Technology
- Bridges, highways, scaffolds: how the amazing engineering of army ants can make us smarter creators
Chris Reid, Macquarie University; Daniele Carlesso, Macquarie University
A type of structure called a 'scaffold' acts like a safety net for ants when they go foraging, preventing them from slipping on steep surfaces.
- Looking at the stars, or falling by the wayside? How astronomy is failing female scientists
Lisa Kewley, Australian National University
Astronomy has been hailed as one area of science making moves to promote gender equity. But new modelling suggests targets are still not being met, and more effort is needed to nurture womens' careers.
- ACCC ‘world first’: Australia’s Federal Court found Google misled users about personal location data
Katharine Kemp, UNSW
Companies are allowed to track users as much as they like — as long as they spell it out in the fine print. But a ground-breaking Australian legal judgement should give them pause.
- As scientists move closer to making part human, part animal organisms, what are the concerns?
Megan Munsie, The University of Melbourne; Julian Koplin, The University of Melbourne
Researchers made human-monkey chimeras, by adding human stem cells to monkey embryos. Some embryos
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