Items

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  2020-12-24

  Adaptations

  This says that as time has went on, people have made more inventions and adaptations to help secure the safety, convenience, and success of as many people as possible. The photo shows a doctor during a plague in the 1700’s with the type of masks that most doctors wore at the time. The survival rate of the epidemic then was much lower than it is now. Now we wear masks that are easy to use in our every day life and are generally very convenient. This is important to me because it displays how our society has learned to adapt to new challenged and that if we can get through this pandemic we can get through anything.
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  2020-11-18

  "The End of the Pandemic Is Now in Sight" - The Atlantic Monthly

  With the development of two viable COVID-19 vaccines, it appears that the end of the pandemic appears to be at hand in the near future. In an article for the Atlantic Monthly magazine, journalist Sarah Zhang explains how these viable vaccines were developed using new technologies and how the resolution of the pandemic is now more dependent on policy choices made by political leaders, namely the President of the United States. During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical professionals, epidemiologists, and vaccinologists were in the dark about the symptoms, treatability, and curability of the disease. After months of intense hands-on experience and in-depth genomic research, the companies Pfizer and Moderna have developed viable vaccine candidates. But these vaccines are different from typical vaccines: they are mRNA vaccines. This means that they work by injecting mRNA which encodes viral proteins, rather than injecting a weakened or dead SARS-CoV-2 virus. mRNA vaccines, according to Zhang, were once thought to be potentially unviable, but the positive preliminary results of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines may mark the beginning of a new era of vaccine research and development. In the future, Zhang says, mRNA vaccines may be developed for the Zika virus or for personalized forms of cancer. However, a major drawback of mRNA vaccines is their fragility, as they require extremely cold temperatures to be preserved. Now that these vaccines may be available for public use in the near future, it is up to the United States' political leadership to formulate policies to promote the vaccination of the populace and the mitigation of COVID-19 infections during the winter. According to Zhang, "Every infection we prevent now—through masking and social distancing—is an infection that can, eventually, be prevented forever through vaccines."
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  2020-10-30

  “The Simple Rule That Could Keep COVID-19 Deaths Down” - The Atlantic Monthly

  Aside from “flattening the curve” of infections, the longer one avoids contracting COVID-19 also ensures that one will have a higher survival rate. This observation was made by Sarah Zhang, a journalist writing for the Atlantic Monthly who has published several articles concerning the pandemic. In this particular article, Zhang briefly summarizes the reasons why it is better for one to get infected later than sooner, supporting each point with peer-reviewed research and statistical data. According to Zhang, one of the most important reasons why it is better to get infected later than earlier is that medical treatments of COVID-19 have been gradually improving since the pandemic began. For instance, ventilators were initially prescribed for most COVID-19 patients, but they were eventually reserved for extreme cases. Other, less invasive oxygen therapies have been prescribed for milder cases. Similarly, new drugs such as Dexamethasone have been prescribed to more patients as medical knowledge about COVID-19 gradually increased. These innovations are reflected in the slightly reduced death toll. However, Zhang reminds readers that despite these improvements in medical treatments, COVID-19 still has several confounding aspects. Furthermore, several experimental treatments and vaccines are still in testing phases, and will not be viable until well into 2021.
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  2020-04-03

  Home brew hand sanitiser, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

  During the first wave of the pandemic in Victoria hand sanitiser and the ethanol used to make it were in global short supply. The hospital Pharmacy collaborated with local gin distillery Suter & Sons to make its own home brew hand sanitiser.