Category: Medicine
-
Poison centre cases rise under Covid-19
THE official US advice has been to disinfect high-touch surfaces to minimise the spread of Covid-19. Taking that advice to the extreme, Lisa filled a sink with a mixture of 10% bleach solution, vinegar and hot water and soaked her vegetables and other food in it. Soon, she noticed a powerful odour of chlorine in…
-
Are we underestimating how many people are resistant to Covid-19?
DURING the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, cities were in general affected worse than smaller conurbations or rural areas. Yet in Italy, Rome was relatively spared while the villages of Lombardy experienced very high rates of sickness and death. Then again, one Lombard village – Ferrara Erbognone – stood out for not recording a…
-
Interview: Covid-19 expert Karl Friston
NEUROSCIENTIST Karl Friston, of University College London, builds mathematical models of human brain function. Lately, he’s been applying his modelling to Covid-19, and using what he learns to advise Independent Sage, the committee set up as an alternative to the UK government’s official pandemic advice body, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage)… This article…
-
Covid-19 and the grassroots
PANDEMICS hand power to the people. Leadership is necessary, for an optimal outcome, but essentially it’s up to us what happens next. It’s in times like these that grassroots political movements can come into their own – if they know how to adapt to the circumstances… This article first appeared in The Guardian on 15 May…
-
The coronavirus slayer!
ON 20 January, KK Shailaja phoned one of her medically trained deputies. She had read online about a dangerous new virus spreading in China. “Will it come to us?” she asked. “Definitely, Madam,” he replied. And so the health minister of the Indian state of Kerala began her preparations… This article first appeared in The Guardian on…
-
Coronavirus: on protecting the vulnerable
PANDEMICS force societies to take a hard look at themselves. With many countries beginning to lift lockdown, we’ve arrived at another one of those mirror moments: whether we experience a second wave of coronavirus infections depends in large part on the health status of some of the most vulnerable groups in society… This article first…
-
Caught in the second wave
ON 15 March, just before Covid-19 hit the Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, the head of its emergency service was calm. “My team is ready,” said Eric Revue… This article first appeared in the New Statesman on 29 April 2020. To continue reading, click here.
-
Interview: Christian Drosten
CHRISTIAN Drosten, who directs the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, was one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003. As the head of the German public health institute’s reference lab on coronaviruses, he has become the government’s go-to expert on the related virus causing the current pandemic… This article…
-
Heart attack and stroke patients delay seeking help
FURTHER evidence is emerging of dramatic falls in numbers of hospital patients presenting with serious medical conditions such as strokes and heart attacks since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic… This article was published in The Guardian on 16 April 2020. To continue reading, click here.
-
Food, globalisation and pandemics
ONCE a dangerous new pathogen is out, as we are seeing, it can be difficult if not impossible to prevent it going global. One as contagious as SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to infect the whole of humanity. Eighty per cent of cases may be benign, but with such a large pool of susceptible hosts, the…