Editor's note

In sport there’s a famous phrase, “go hard or go home”. When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps it should be “go hard, and stay home”.

A new analysis reveals in stark detail the differing fortunes of countries that were prepared to go hard and early on social isolation measures in response to the epidemic, and those that fatally hesitated.

Australia, thankfully, has fallen into the former camp, reports Hassan Vally, who presents a series of graphs showing how six different nations have fared. Australia’s border controls and social distancing helped us rapidly reduce the virus’s spread below the threshold needed to flatten the curve. Contrast that with Italy, the US and the UK, all of which were slow to act and are suffering the consequences.

But one example, Singapore, went hard early but then relaxed, after which the virus rebounded, showing there’s no room for complacency.

Singapore’s coronavirus outbreak is overwhelmingly concentrated in the dormitories where its foreign migrant workers live – and the crisis is shining a light on their deplorable living conditions.

Sallie Yea spent a year talking to these workers about their lives in Singapore, and here, she takes an inside look at their living conditions: 20-30 men sharing a room and up to 80 men sharing one toilet, no air conditioning or proper ventilation, night and day workers having to take shifts in the same bed. The spread of disease has long been a problem.

Michael Hopkin

Science + Technology Editor

Top story

James Gourley/AAP Image

6 countries, 6 curves: how nations that moved fast against COVID-19 avoided disaster

Hassan Vally, La Trobe University

Countries aiming to flatten the coronavirus curve have one crucial aim: reduce the "effective reproduction number" of the virus to below 1. This means the spread is slowing, rather than accelerating.

Wallace Woon/EPA

This is why Singapore’s coronavirus cases are growing: a look inside the dismal living conditions of migrant workers

Sallie Yea, La Trobe University

Singapore, once a success in containing coronavirus, now has the most cases in Southeast Asia. One of the main reasons: the government's neglect of its 300,000 foreign migrant workers.

Shutterstock

‘I spoke about Dreamtime, I ticked a box’: teachers say they lack confidence to teach Indigenous perspectives

Michelle Bishop, Macquarie University

Many teachers want to teach Indigenous perspectives but often lack confidence or know-how. Teachers must be willing to confront the ongoing effects of colonialism in and outside the classroom.

DAVID CROSLING/AAP

250 years since Captain Cook landed in Australia, it’s time to acknowledge the violence of first encounters

Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Phoebe Roth, The Conversation; Sophia Morris, The Conversation

The way Australia has commemorated Cook's arrival has changed over time – from military displays in 1870 to waning interest in Cook in the 1950s, followed by the fever pitch celebrations of 1970.

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