Health & Fitness

Bill Gates — who illegally invests in the same industries he gives charitable donations to, and who promotes a global public health agenda that benefits the companies he’s invested in — has gone on record saying life will not go back to normal until we have the ability to vaccinate the entire global population against COVID-19.¹

To that end, he is pushing for disease surveillance and a vaccine tracking system² that might involve embedding vaccination records on our bodies. One example of how this might be done is using an invisible ink quantum dot tattoo, described in a December 18, 2019, Science Translational Medicine paper.^3,4

According to statements made by Gates, societal and financial normalcy may never return to those who refuse vaccination, as the digital vaccination certificate Gates is pushing for might ultimately be required to go about your day-to-day life and business. Without this “digital immunity proof,” you may not even be allowed to travel locally or visit certain public buildings.

Gates has a history of “predicting” global pandemics with vast numbers of deaths,⁵ and with his call for a tracking system to keep tabs on infected/noninfected and vaccinated/unvaccinated individuals, he’s ensuring an unimaginably profitable future for the vaccine makers he supports and makes money from via his Foundation investments.

Along with Gates, The Rockefeller Foundation is also coordinating efforts in the direction of social control through the implementation of draconian COVID-19 tracking and tracing measures that are clearly meant to become permanent.

National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan

April 21, 2020, The Rockefeller Foundation released a white paper⁶ titled, “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan — Strategic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities.” In the foreword, Rockefeller Foundation president Dr. Rajiv J. Shah writes:

“In the face of an ineffective nationally-coordinated response, insufficient data, and inadequate amounts of protective gear and testing, we need an exit plan. Testing is our way out of this crisis.

Instead of ricocheting between an unsustainable shutdown and a dangerous, uncertain return to normalcy, the United States must mount a sustainable strategy with better tests and contact tracing, and stay the course for as long as it takes to develop a vaccine or cure.

Any plan to do so must win the faith of private and public sector leaders across the country, and of individual Americans that they and their loved ones will be safer when we begin to return to daily life.

The Rockefeller Foundation exists to meet moments like this. In the past two weeks we have brought together experts and leaders from science, industry, academia, public policy, and government — across sectors and political ideologies — to create a clear, pragmatic, data-driven, actionable plan to beat back Covid-19 and get Americans back to work more safely.”

The plan calls for testing and tracing 1 million Americans per week to start, incrementally ramping it up to 3 million and then 30 million per week (the “1-3-30 plan”) over the next six months until the entire population has been covered.

Test results would then be collected on a digital platform capable of tracking all tested individuals so that contact-tracing can be performed when someone tests positive. According to the “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan”:

“Policy makers and the public must find the balance between privacy concerns and infection control to allow the infection status of most Americans to be accessed and validated in a few required settings and many voluntary ones.”

To this end, they suggest using incentives “to nudge the voluntary use” of tracking and contact tracing apps rather than making them mandatory. They also call for the use of “innovative digital technologies” aimed at improving “workforce monitoring and early detection of recurrent outbreaks.”

“When integrated into national and state surveillance systems, such innovations may enable the same level of outbreak detection with fewer tests.

Promising techniques include anonymous digital tracking of workforces or population-based resting heart-rate and smart thermometer trends; continually updated epidemiological data modeling; and artificial intelligence projections based on clinical and imaging data,” the document states.⁷

Modern ‘Wartime’ Effort That Will Cost Billions

According to the “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan”:⁸

“Monitoring the pandemic and adjusting social distancing measures will require launching the largest public health testing program in American history ... The effort will ultimately grow to billions of dollars per month ... But with widespread business closures costing the country $350 billion to $400 billion each month, the expense will be worth it.

This testing infrastructure is intended to tide the country over until a vaccine or therapy is widely available.

Coordination of such a massive program should be treated as a wartime effort, with a public/private bipartisan Pandemic Testing Board established to assist and serve as a bridge between local, state, and federal officials with the logistical, investment and political challenges this operation will inevitably face.”

Don’t Be Naïve About Infectious Tracking Plan

Call me jaded, but this sounds like a plan to surveil Americans so that they can easily be tracked down for mandatory vaccination once a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. It also creates the necessary infrastructure for vaccination tracking across the board, for all vaccines.

While they give lip-service to privacy and anonymization of data, privacy promises have been repeatedly broken in the past. Besides, the document clearly states that:⁹

“Some privacy concerns must be set aside for an infectious agent as virulent as Covid-19, allowing the infection status of most Americans to be accessed and validated in a few required settings and many voluntary ones.

The loss of privacy engendered by such a system would come at too high of a price if the arrival of a vaccine early next year was a certainty. But vaccine development and manufacture could take years, and when it comes certain populations may be excluded from receiving it for health reasons.

In the meantime, infection status must be known for people to participate in many societal functions. Legislation protecting people from being fired over infection status must be passed.

Those screened must be given a unique patient identification number that would link to information about a patient’s viral, antibody and eventually vaccine status under a system that could easily handshake with other systems to speed the return of normal societal functions.

Schools could link this to attendance lists, large office buildings to employee ID cards, TSA to passenger lists and concert and sports venues to ticket purchasers. Such connections should be made in a way that protects personally identifying information whenever possible … Whenever and wherever possible data should be open.”

Are You Ready to Give Up EVERYTHING Over a Virus?

“Privacy concerns must be set aside.” Infection status must be “accessed and validated in a few required settings.”

Infection status will be linked to schools, office buildings, places of work, airports, concert and sport venues — in other words, most areas people need or want to frequent, if not daily, then at least occasionally. Infection status must be known “for people to participate in societal functions.” Legislation must be passed to protect people from being fired from their jobs based on their infection status. Are you concerned yet?

Anyone who remembers the tactics employed in Nazi Germany, or anyone familiar with the current surveillance of the Chinese population, will realize where this is headed.

Reading through the plan, it should also be crystal clear that this tracking and surveillance program is not designed to be temporary. You can be strongly assured this will be permanent. It calls for hundreds of thousands of new employees, updating computer systems and new laws that in many ways resemble the implementation of TSA post-9/11.

Not addressed in this report is the question of just how often would you have to undergo testing. A negative test today may not be valid tomorrow, if you happen to come across someone who is infected between now and then. Would you have to undergo testing every single day? Once a week?

If regular retesting is not part of the plan, then the whole system is worthless as your infection status could change at any time.

Other questions not addressed: If you happen to be in the vicinity of someone who tests positive in the near future, would you have to quarantine for two weeks? Will your employer pay for that time off? Will you have a job when you come out of quarantine?

What if you quarantine for two weeks but don’t get sick and test negative for antibodies, then go out and happen across yet another person who ends up testing positive shortly thereafter. Will you be forced into quarantine again? Where does it end?

The tracking system The Rockefeller Foundation is calling for is eerily similar to that already being used in China, where residents are required to enroll in a health condition registry. Once enrolled, they get a personal QR code, which they must then enter in order to gain access to grocery stores and other facilities.¹⁰

The plan also demands access to other medical data. According to the “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan”:¹¹

“This infection database must easily interoperate with doctor, hospital and insurance health records in an essential and urgent national program to finally rationalize the disparate and sometimes deliberately isolated electronic medical records systems across the country …

Unfortunately, obtaining the necessary clinical data to bring these powerful analytic tools to bear has been difficult due to information-blocking tactics of electronic health records (EHR) vendors. Among the longtime tactics used by such vendors has been charging unreasonable fees for data access, requiring providers to sign restrictive contracts, and claiming patients’ clinical data is proprietary.

On March 9, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two long-awaited final rules that would prohibit information blocking in health care and advance more seamless exchange of health care data. But publication in the Federal Register, necessary to activate the rules, has been inexplicably delayed. This delay must end.”

In other words, this plan is far more comprehensive than merely tracking COVID-19 cases. It’s designed to replace the current system of “disparate and sometimes deliberately isolated electronic medical records systems across the country.”

ID2020

While The Rockefeller Foundation’s white paper simply calls for the use of a digital “patient identification number” without indicating exactly how you would carry this ID number on your person, Gates has repeatedly talked about the “need” for some sort of implantable vaccine certificate.

In 1999, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $750 million to set up Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.¹² Gavi, in turn, has partnered with the ID2020 Alliance, along with the Bangladeshi government, to launch a digital identity program called ID2020.¹³

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also funded the GSMA Inclusive Tech Lab, launched in 2019, the aim of which is to promote access to digital and biometric identity services and systems.^14,15

ID2020, which also launched in 2019, is designed to “leverage immunization as an opportunity to establish digital identity.” This digital identity system is said to carry “far-reaching implications for individuals’ access to services and livelihoods,” so to think that Gates’ call for implantable COVID-19 vaccine certificates would be limited to that alone would again be a grave mistake.

Like The Rockefeller Foundation, Gates is not presenting short-term, temporary measures. They’re both aiming to implement a totalitarian control system. It’s not so far-fetched to imagine a future in which your vaccine certificate or “unique patient ID number” replaces personal identifications such as your driver’s license, state ID card, Social Security card and passport, and is tied not only to your medical records in total, but also your finances.

I remain confident that it would be a tragic mistake to trust Gates, Rockefeller, Google or any of the other players that are being brought before us as the saviors of the day. While most people are well-acquainted with the Rockefeller name, few probably know the true history of the Rockefellers' rise to power. If you fall in this category, be sure to read “How the Oil Industry Conquered Medicine, Finance and Agriculture,” which features an excellent video report by James Corbett.

Those who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat it, and if the Rockefeller story tells us anything, it is that unless we realize what has been done, we'll be deceived again and again, because the oil oligarchy's end game is yet to be realized — if we let them.

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According to many public health experts, testing for COVID-19 is key to stopping the pandemic. Testing leads to quick identification, isolation and treatment of COVID-19 cases, including those who came into contact with infected people. It stops the spread of the virus.¹

Unfortunately, widespread testing in the U.S. has been limited by logistic and personnel problems, lab capacity, cost and the availability and reliability of the tests themselves. That's why researchers at several universities and medical centers are exploring the use of smartphones to detect COVID-19, through users' speech and coughs.

Apps designed to discern the presence of COVID-19 vocally are underway at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,² the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland³ and the University of Cambridge in the U.K.⁴

Many of the app creators emphasize that their immediate priority is less an accurate diagnosis for users than collecting enough voice samples from those with and without the virus to develop an algorithm that can accurately diagnose COVID-19 cases in the future.⁵ They say their devices are works in progress.

While users help build the vocal signature database there is also something in it for them. Users of Carnegie Mellon's COVID Voice Detector app⁶ will receive "results, which are presented as a sliding scale to suggest how concerned we should be," according to Digital Trends.⁷

How Can Someone 'Sound' Sick?

Doctors have reported that COVID-19 exerts unique and distinctive effects on the way patients speak and cough, which forms the basis for the voice-driven AI diagnostic tests.⁸ According to Bhiksha Raj, a Carnegie Mellon professor who worked on the COVID Voice Detector project:⁹

"Coughs of people with infected lungs sound different. The elongated vowels like 'aaaa' not only sound different, but the duration to which they can be kept up is reduced. When you speak a long string of numbers, followed immediately by the alphabet, you're being asked to speak for an extended period of time.

COVID patients tend to get breathless, have runny noses, somewhat sore throats, and tire easily. All of these will affect the way they speak — particularly when they must speak for longer durations."

Professor Cecilia Mascolo at the University of Cambridge, U.K., where the COVID-19 voice driven app is part of a project called EAR,¹⁰ agrees that the voice of someone with the virus can be different. She told Horizon magazine:¹¹

"[S]ome research papers … indicate the cough that comes with Covid-19 has some specific features – it has been described as being a dry cough (with some specific distinguishing features that allow it to be identified).

Having spoken to doctors who are treating people (Covid-19 patients) in hospitals, there may be some changes to their voice, their patterns of breathing or the way they catch their breath as they talk like they are exhausted. We are looking at all of these things by asking participants to record themselves breathing and reading sentences out loud."

Because of the vocal aberrations, the voices and coughs of users can be used diagnostically. After downloading the Carnegie Mellon COVID Voice Detector app, users are instructed to cough several times, pronounce a number of vowel sounds and recite the alphabet into the microphone of their smartphone or a computer.¹² They then receive a score that indicates the likelihood of a COVID-19 infection.

Limits to a COVID-19 Voice Test

The Carnegie Mellon researchers who developed the COVID Voice Detector caution that the tests, though quick and easy, cannot be a substitute for medical advice; results must be verified by medical professionals and/or backed by the CDC. According to Raj:¹³

"The app's results are preliminary and untested. The score the app currently shows is an indicator of how much the signatures in your voice match those of other COVID patients whose voices we have tested. This is not medical advice.

The primary objective of our effort/website at this point of time is to collect large numbers of voice recordings that we could use to refine the algorithm into something we — and the medical community — are confident about."

Raj urges users of the COVID Voice Detector app to not make medical decisions based on results because they could be endangering themselves.¹⁴

Before a user of the Carnegie Mellon app creates their profile, they have to check a box on the website that says, "I understand that this is an experimental system which is still under development … It is not a diagnostic system. It has not been verified by medical professionals. It is not FDA or CDC-approved, and must not be used as a substitute for a medical test or examination."¹⁵

Still, such disclaimers may not be enough. Rita Singh, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who has worked with vocal signature apps to detect diseases like Parkinson's, told the BBC:¹⁶

"It doesn't matter how many disclaimers you put up there — how clearly you tell people that this has not been medically validated — some people will take the machine as the word of God."

Google has also restricted apps like the COVID Voice Detector¹⁷ to make sure there is no misinformation. False positives could waste precious resources and false negatives could have fatal consequences, admits Singh, so great caution must be taken.¹⁸

The Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence

From FitBits to mobile cardiac-monitoring devices, many are increasingly relying on instruments for health measurement and feedback. Technology and machines rather than clinicians have replaced a lot of our health monitoring information and even our own self-appraisals.

According to Mascolo, who is working on a COVID-19 voice detector at the University of Cambridge:¹⁹

"The technique of listening to the body is actually very difficult for humans to acquire without a lot of training, but machines are much better at it. Artificial intelligence technologies like machine learning can identify features or patterns in a sound that the human ear cannot …

Our big vision … is for machine learning algorithms to be linked to wearable devices and smartphones so it can automate the diagnosis of disease through sound. Most of us might have a doctor listen to our body's sounds periodically, but what happens if you have something that can listen to you continuously. It could be a new form of diagnostic."

But, there is a darker side to smartphones and AI capturing your personal data — the potential for invasion of privacy and unabashed surveillance.

In March 2020, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy began assembling a task force of tech and AI companies to "develop new text and data-mining techniques that could help the science community answer high-priority scientific questions related to COVID-19."²⁰

The task force of 60 included tech giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Uber, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon.

The risks of such companies data-mining your texts and cellphone data range from targeted marketing based on your personal data to literal spying on someone's whereabouts and personal contacts. The scepter of "vaccination certificates" and totalitarian national tracking systems also cannot be ruled out.

The voice app makers seem to be aware of the risks. A notice on the Carnegie Mellon COVID Voice Detector reads:²¹

"We take your privacy seriously … We do not ask you for your name, address, or any other identifiers, although you may elect to provide an email address if you choose to do so for password recovery purposes.

You may ask us to delete your data as described in the privacy policy, and our account system may also enable you to directly delete information you have provided. Our account system also currently enables you to download a copy of all the data we currently have collected from you through the study.

We do request you not to avail of this latter facility unnecessarily, as it imposes a great load on our system. Please see our consent form and privacy policy for full details regarding the use and handling of your information."

Will Voice-Based COVID-19 App Help the Pandemic?

Not all technology and medical experts laud the work on voice-based COVID-19 apps underway at academic centers like Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Cambridge and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Ashwin Vasan, a professor at Columbia University Medical Center, articulated his doubts to Futurism:²²

"'Despite what could be a well-intentioned attempt by a bunch of engineers to help during this crisis, this is not exactly the messaging we want to be out there,' he cautioned.

'That somehow there is a nifty new tool we can use to diagnose coronavirus, in absence of the things we really need much more of, actual test kits, serologic testing, PPE for frontline healthcare workers, and ventilators for critically ill patients.

Let's keep the focus on that, especially when our leaders in Washington seem unable to meet those most basic needs … Anything else is just a distraction.'"

The AI voice-based apps also show the difference in style between the slow-moving science/medical world and the fast and loose culture of Silicon Valley, wrote Digital Trends:²³

"For some time, it has been evident that there is a conflict between Silicon Valley's famous mantra of 'move fast and break things' and the real world's need for empirical proofs, proper testing, and verification.

Put simply, technologists' belief in hacking together tools and pushing them out into the world, safe in the knowledge that agile methodology will let them tweak and hone until the finished product works as well as hoped, doesn't always mesh well with … peer review and clinical testing. This challenge is particularly pronounced in the field of medicine."

Developers Acknowledge App Challenges

Developers of voice-based COVID-19 apps acknowledge the limits of the diagnostic tools, especially as they are in the early stages. According to Raj, the COVID Voice Detector "is, at best, currently a triage tool that could prompt people to seek out further medical opinions."

But the app developers also see positive and worldwide public health applications if the algorithms are proven and the inventions succeed. Raj told Digital Trends:²⁴

"'If this works, we will have a very simple and easy way of monitoring millions of people,' Raj said. 'Not only can we get instantaneous evaluations, but also look at longitudinal trends among subjects who use it repeatedly.

This could provide a way tracking health outbreaks in general in future — particularly ones that affect voice.'

For this reason, Carnegie Mellon plans to share the data it gathers with other researchers around the world, encouraging them to work on it either collaboratively or independently. The one catch? 'We will need the assurance from anyone who uses our data that they will not be protecting or commercializing any IP that comes out of it either,' [said Raj]"

Others at Carnegie Mellon who have worked on the COVID Voice Detector project echo Raj's optimism. According to Futurism:²⁵

"'I've seen a lot of competition for the cheapest, fastest diagnosis you can have,' said Benjamin Striner, a Carnegie Mellon graduate student who worked on the project, in an interview with Futurism. 'And there are some pretty good ones that are actually really cheap and pretty accurate, but nothing's ever going to be as cheap and as easy as speaking into a phone.'

That's a provocative claim in the face of the global coronavirus outbreak, and particularly the widespread shortages of testing kits. But Striner believes that the team's algorithm, even though it's still highly experimental, could be a valuable tool in tracking the spread of the virus, especially as the team continues to refine its accuracy by collecting more data.'"

Devices, apps or testing methods that can get the COVID-19 pandemic under control have positive potential, as most are eagerly waiting for the world to get back to the way it was before social distancing and the fear of COVID-19.

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While isolation is a great time to focus on your fitness goals at home, extensive physical activity can be a harmful. Trainer Sam Wood explains why you need to take a break every so often to help your body reset and rejuvenate. 

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A new tool using cutting-edge technology is able to distinguish different types of blood clots based on what caused them, according to a new study.

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Need to kickstart a healthy diet? Look no further than these low-carb recipes that'll have you sorted for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.

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Australian TV host, model, Yogini and certified health coach Ashley Hart knows a thing or two about wellness. She's sharing her daily rituals so you can get inspired.

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Co-founders of SOMA Collection gym Simon Miller and Franco Atashi, take us through a full-body sculpting workout to tone you from top-to-toe, as part of the body+soul LIVE @ home online workout series. Press play to get started!

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Overeating because you’re bored? Dietitian Melissa Meier shares her practical tips on how to stop boredom eating in its tracks.

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Sick of having the same dinners on rotation? Try adding this protein-packed sweetcorn and broccoli slice for the perfect warm and satisfying winter dinner.

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A study has revealed how the physical presence of spouses who are co-parenting can alter each other's brain activity.

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A series of saliva HPV tests detected an asymptomatic throat cancer during a trial of a new saliva diagnostic. Further validation studies are needed to confirm this finding. It is a world-first discovery, previously there was no screening test for HPV-DNA oropharyngeal cancers. The patient had surgery in which a 2 mm cancer was removed and has had no recurrence of HPV-DNA in his saliva.

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Scientists have uncovered a novel mechanism by which abnormalities in mitochondrial fission in endothelial cells contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress in the cardiovascular system. They further show how the fission-fusion balance can be stabilized to lower inflammation using salicylate, the main active ingredient in everyday pain-relieving drugs like aspirin.

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If you haven’t had a tetanus booster shot in the past decade, your doctor may recommend getting one. Many people think of a tetanus shot as something you only need if you step on a rusty nail. Yet even in the absence of a puncture wound, this vaccine is recommended for all adults at least every 10 years. But why? A group of researchers recently questioned whether you need to repeat tetanus vaccines on a regular schedule.

What is a tetanus booster?

Booster shots are repeat vaccinations you receive after your first series of immunizations as a child. Protection from certain vaccines can wane over time, which is why doctors advise boosters. The tetanus vaccine is not just for tetanus though. It’s bundled with a vaccine for diphtheria and sometimes one for pertussis (the bacteria that causes whooping cough).

What are tetanus and diphtheria?

Tetanus and diphtheria are rare but serious diseases that can cause severe complications in those infected.

Tetanus, sometimes known as “lockjaw,” is an infection caused by a type of bacteria called Clostridium tetani. When this bacteria invades the body, it can produce a toxin that leads to painful muscle tightening and stiffness. In severe cases, it can lead to trouble breathing, seizures, and death. Tetanus does not spread from person to person. Usually it enters the body through contaminated breaks in the skin — stepping on a nail that has the bacteria on it, for example. There are about 30 reported cases of tetanus in the US each year. These cases almost always occur in adult patients who have never received a tetanus vaccine, or adults who have not been up to date on their 10-year booster shots.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by a type of bacteria called Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Diphtheria can cause a thick covering on the back of the throat and may lead to difficulty breathing, paralysis, or death. It typically spreads person-to-person. There have been fewer than five cases reported to the CDC in the past 10 years.

What are the current vaccine recommendations?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends tetanus vaccines for people of all ages. Adolescents and adults receive either the Td or Tdap vaccines. These vaccines protect over 95% of people from disease for approximately 10 years. Currently the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends a booster shot every 10 years. Injury or wound management and pregnancy may affect this schedule.

What does the new study on tetanus boosters suggest?

A recent paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggested that tetanus and diphtheria booster vaccines are not necessary for adults who have completed their childhood vaccination series. This advice aligns with the current World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The researchers reviewed WHO data from 31 North American and European countries between 2001 and 2016, amounting to 11 billion person-years. (Person-years is a measurement that reflects the number of people in the study multiplied by years followed). After comparing the incidence of tetanus and diphtheria, they found no significant difference in disease rates in countries that require adults to receive booster shots compared with those that do not. Based on this, the authors suggest that childhood vaccination alone protects sufficiently against tetanus and diphtheria without booster shots.

So, what should you do?

The question of whether to have ongoing booster vaccines is more complicated than looking at frequency of a disease. The conclusions of this study focus on the lack of change in tetanus or diphtheria incidence rates among countries that routinely vaccinate children. However, other factors influence the number of cases, such as the overall amount of the bacteria in the environment, or wound management and hygiene measures.

Immunity from antibodies to tetanus and diphtheria may persist for many years. Over time, though, antibody levels  decrease. We know that even if antibodies are present, low levels may not always be protective. Even though this study was well executed and raises some important questions, further studies are needed to examine whether a childhood vaccination series offers lifelong protection without repeated adult boosters.

Even though it happens rarely, people can still get tetanus and experience serious or deadly effects. There is no cure for tetanus, and no definitive proof that you will have lifelong immunity with childhood vaccinations alone. So for now, the CDC continues to recommend booster vaccines every 10 years to help your immune system protect against these infections. If you have questions about the tetanus and diphtheria vaccine, talk to your doctor.

The post Do adults really need tetanus booster shots? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

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A series of saliva HPV tests detected an asymptomatic throat cancer during a trial of a new saliva diagnostic. Further validation studies are needed to confirm this finding. It is a world-first discovery, previously there was no screening test for HPV-DNA oropharyngeal cancers. The patient had surgery in which a 2 mm cancer was removed and has had no recurrence of HPV-DNA in his saliva.

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Six months ago, no one knew that COVID-19 existed but right now it’s the foundation of our everyday lives. So when will it be over? Kara Byers looks to history to see how pandemics have ended in the past, and what we can expect as restrictions ease and Australians slowly return to a ‘new normal’. 

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