A report commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia came out a few days ago, looking at indoor air quality strategies with the potential to reduce transmission of airborne diseases in public buildings.
Recommendations to government were outside of scope for the report (of course) - but two things are clear:
- There are Covid prevention mechanisms available, including clean air tools
- Inaction on Covid has consequences for public health
Australia is looking at a possible fresh wave of cases.
2024 is projected to bring the biggest summer wave in recent years elsewhere in the world.
The New Zealand government will stop funding Covid tests in September. The US has just started distributing them.
New Zealand now relies on wastewater testing. This has just changed so that only 11 sites are all tested each week for SARS-CoV-2. The dashboard is updated every 2 weeks. Variants are updated at least every 4 weeks. Only 45% of New Zealand’s population is covered by testing.
One of the ways inequity is embedded is when our public health response doesn’t factor in the health of the public.
Covid is not seasonal. The waves will keep coming. Health will keep being impacted. The Long Covid crisis will keep growing.
There is no timeline for when newly updated vaccines will be arriving in New Zealand - the ones relevant to the variants we are being impacted by now.
There is also no word on Novavax approvals and no explanation for why Pfizer is being preferenced.
The new vaccines should cut the risk of getting Covid by 60% to 70% and reduce the risk of getting seriously ill by 80% to 90%. The updated vaccines will be available in the US in the next few days for anyone age 6 months and older.
There is evidence to support that the updated vaccines are the best for protection against Covid - yet the vaccines we have available are over a year out of date.
There are things we are losing that we should not have to grieve.
Who is being protected? Who is being discarded?
What happens when the fact that no one is driving the bus meets the fact that all of our (unfunded) ambulances are at the bottom of the cliff?
All questions we should be asking.
Some more questions we should be asking, here.
Image: Help by Nick Youngson.