Pinned
MJA Editor in Chief
31.9K posts
MJA Editor in Chief
@MJA_Editor
Ginny Barbour, Editor-in-Chief, Medical Journal of Australia. Haematologist originally, Open Science advocate, editor.
See @theMJA for MJA & InSight+ tweets
- Good news! New quick test for COVID-19 approved. 15-minute test. 500,000 kits are due to land in Australia this week if all goes well with airfreight space, planes are able to land and they pass border control. A priority! #COVID19Aus
- “I don't buy we are all going to have to get COVID. And I don't buy we have to let it rip. Everyone of us taking action will make a difference. Happy New Year”. Dr Nick Talley: Protect yourself from omicron ... because the PM's plan won't
- COVID-19. Exponential infection curve in Australia. NSW hardest hit. It’s going to be a lot worse, soon, unless there is a miracle. We need more action on social distancing. Not in a month. Not in 2 weeks. Now. We can save lives. We can create a miracle. We can beat it. Do it.This is superb and shows how we needed to be more onto this. Exponential.
- NSW recorded 1,542 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. No new cases were acquired overseas in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, and 34 previously reported cases have been excluded following further investigation.
- End game for #Omicron I’m asked about. I don’t know. Double-dose vaccination not sufficient. Booster rollout another stroll out. WHO recommends tightening of public health measure, we’ve ignored it. I’m as worried now as I was when the pandemic began. Our leaders should be too.
- Does closing schools slow the spread of coronavirus? Regarding epidemics: “Proactive school closures—closing schools before there’s a case there—have been shown to be one of the most powerful nonpharmaceutical interventions that we can deploy” | Science sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/d…
- Not good news. SARS-CoV-2 can infect brain cells and damage neurons news-medical.net/news/20201015/…
- I received this message from a nurse in Melbourne. "Hi, I’m a nurse currently deployed in the quarantine hotels. Is there anything you can do help communicate the message that the swab tests are no longer as invasive and painful as they were at the beginning?" #COVID19Aus
- Obviously current restrictions not working sufficiently - numbers still going up, curve is not bent. I do not understand why we haven’t tried to go harder. NZ did. Victoria is. It’s not too late. But may be soon. Vaccination key but alone not the answer.
- Most of population have underlying health conditions. Overweight/obesity for example. I’m worried the language around COVID related deaths and underlying health problems may be misinterpreted. Most would NOT have died if not infected. And it’s NOT their fault they got infected.Let's be careful with language. Millions of us live quite normally with underlying conditions. If it is used as a measure of risk, fine. If it is used to somehow mitigate responsibility for bad outcomes, that's unacceptable. #Covid19Aus #auspol
- A travel ban for Australian citizens from India will come into effect with criminal sanctions. I read this was based on “expert medical advice”. If so, I’d like to see the advice and evidence that justifies placing these Australians in harms way. And what about rest of the world?A statement from the Australian Human Rights Commission on the news of a travel ban and sanctions on Australians travelling home from India.
- My comments in the Guardian echo others. A crisis. What worries me too is according to the WHO the pandemic is now “out of control” in Australia based on % +ve tests. And as cases accelerate we are “flying blind” as we test much less & fail to record rapid antigen test results.Decision to exempt NSW health workers from Covid isolation reflects hospitals’ ‘desperate situation’ -“we’re in a very difficult, perilous situation arguably, despite all the assurances that the hospital system was robust & everything was going to be fine” theguardian.com/australia-news…
- The views expressed in my tweets are my own. I will continue to call the pandemic response as I see it without spin, based on the best available evidence I can find, and if the evidence changes so will my views. And I won’t be cowered by intimidating emails, phone calls or posts.My comments on the health crisis today. What’s needed? Clear communication on exactly what to do when you develop covid symptoms. Increased support for GPs now required to manage #covid in the community. Urgent introduction of methods to report RAT results newcastleherald.com.au/story/7572161/
