© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

coronavirus

Read more about the article Sweden’s shocking Covid-19 mistakes
Sweden's flag, and Anders Tegnell. Photo by Frankie Fouganthin

Sweden’s shocking Covid-19 mistakes

Living in Australia, and with loved ones in Sweden, it’s hard not to be confronted by the extraordinary differences in the approach of the two nations’ governments to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Australia, after a wobbly start and a period during which I thought our government was giving up without a fight (unmonitored airport arrivals, the cruise ship stuff-up, the happy clapper conference that got the nod), knuckled down to take advantage of its island status and keep infections low – so far. Frankly, I still credit the political nous of state premiers…

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Bats, viruses, immunity and Covid-19

Three things in particular I have found striking, amongst the avalanche of information circulating about Covid-19 - the "novel coronavirus" now infesting humanity. One: whenever any group does random testing of groups of people, a surprising proportion proves to be infected with the virus but has no symptoms whatever. Two: the worst of the illness caused by the virus is actually wrought by the immune system of the host victim. Three: bats are apparently the reservoir for large numbers of viruses - and are said to be the source of this one - but tend not…

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Read more about the article Daniel Defoe’s London Journal of the Plague Year: insights for the year 2020

Daniel Defoe’s London Journal of the Plague Year: insights for the year 2020

PUBLISHED in 1722, A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe, is full of relevance in the year of COVID-19. Not because the diseases are similar: they aren't. But because many elements of the story ring true across the centuries. It's believed that Defoe's extraordinary novel may have been based on the real life journal of the experiences of his uncle in London during the plague. Certainly Defoe was only five years old in the plague year of 1665, but the document is so persuasively authentic it must surely have had a significant foundation in…

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