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As NSW’s lockdown drags on with no clear end in sight, and Melbourne reaches over 200 total days in lockdown over the course of the pandemic, many are asking if it’s time to do away with COVID-zero and simply ‘live with the virus’.
The theory is, perhaps we can live with a few cases here and there without having to lock down every time we get a handful of cases.
The sad reality, according to Hassan Vally, is this just isn’t a choice. The Delta variant is so infectious that we’d lose control and have overwhelming case numbers, ICU admissions and deaths, like we’ve seen overseas.
The only way we can tolerate new COVID cases without major escalation is if the vast majority of us are fully vaccinated. In good news on that front, yesterday Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that all Australians over 16 will be eligible from August 30.
Once 70-80% of us are fully vaccinated, the end will be in sight.
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Liam Petterson
Deputy Editor, Health + Medicine
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Mick Tsikas/AAP
Hassan Vally, La Trobe University
Some people think there’s a choice of living more freely and not having the virus spread uncontrollably and causing widespread illness and deaths. But there isn’t, until enough of us are vaccinated.
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IGOR KOVALENKO/EPA
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The government’s refugee policy in the wake of the Afghanistan war is a chance to show the world what sort of country we are and we should display a more generous character, writes Michelle Grattan.
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A family taking refuge in a makeshift camp for displaced people near Kabul.
GettyImages
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato
New Zealand has an ethical obligation to acknowledge its role in creating the crisis in Afghanistan and to increase its refugee intake to save as many as possible.
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The author was in this crowd, finally boarding a plane to leave Kabul.
Photo: Hanif Sufizada
Hanif Sufizada, University of Nebraska Omaha
Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave.
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Dan Peled/AAP
Aidan Ricketts, Southern Cross University
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he is ‘listening’ to a woman quietly holding a climate action sign outside parliament. But politicians have a vested interest in downplaying disruptive protests.
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Richard Woodgett
Adam Smith, James Cook University; Nathan Cook, James Cook University; Vicki Saylor, Indigenous Knowledge
The remarkably resilient structure is in good health, for now. But work is needed to ensure it is preserved for future generations.
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Education
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Kathryn Shine, Curtin University
A survey of 268 teachers found 85% considered education news coverage to be generally negative. And 81% found it demoralising.
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Arts + Culture
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Patrick D. Nunn, University of the Sunshine Coast
From Fiji to France to Central Australia, stories abound of lands lost beneath the sea. Some are likely founded on millennia-old memories of coastal submergence, offering us clues today.
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Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University
Rutherford Falls shows strained relationships, but also friendships. And above all, it features joy.
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Sarah Peters, Flinders University
In a bold new play, all of humanity takes a drug to induce a year’s hibernation.
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Health + Medicine
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Nancy Baxter, The University of Melbourne; Benjamin Veness, CQUniversity Australia
With the reality of the COVID situation in Australia, particularly in New South Wales, some older adults could literally die waiting.
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Susan Coulson, University of Sydney
NSW MP Victor Dominello has said he has Bell’s palsy, after appearing at a press conference this week with what he described as a ‘droopy eye’. So, what is Bell’s palsy and how is it treated?
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Gabriela Tavella, UNSW; Gordon Parker, UNSW
Feeling exhausted, unable to concentrate and wanting to withdraw and disconnect from the world and those around you? You could be heading towards burnout.
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David Welch, University of Auckland; Jemma Geoghegan; Nigel French, Massey University
As more genomes are sequenced, it will become clearer when and how the Delta variant slipped through the New Zealand border. The greater the diversity in genomes, the older and larger the outbreak.
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Science + Technology
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Eryn Newman, Australian National University; Kate Reynolds, Australian National University
We all have biases that impact what information we choose to accept and reject. But there are some ways we can train ourselves to become more discerning.
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Politics + Society
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Jeremy Moses, University of Canterbury; Geoffrey Ford, University of Canterbury; Sian Troath, University of Canterbury
New Zealanders are worried about autonomous weapons. But military alliances with the US and Australia, and potential economic gains from local robotics research, mean NZ won’t yet take a tough stand.
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Mai Sato, Monash University; Matthew Goldberg, Monash University
While most other Pacific nations take a strong abolitionist stances on the death penalty, PNG is moving in the opposite direction – despite not having executed any prisoners since 1954.
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