Author: Ellie Matthews

With the arrival of 2021, a new hope for a “COVID-free” year was introduced: vaccines. The UK government hailed their arrival with talks of ‘loosening restrictions’ and ‘returning to normality’. Top scientists, although encouraged by this new weapon, were more cautious, with some suggesting that some form of restriction may be required for the rest of the year. Regardless, a widespread vaccine roll-out can only be good in our fight against COVID-19.  So, what are the vaccines? How are they different? Are some better than others? And when might I get one? These are all questions I’m sure we want answered, and hopefully this article will give a little more insight into the complex world of vaccination and immunisation. Pfizer/BioNTech: The Pfizer vaccine was approved by the MH...

What is a Coronavirus? Coronavirus (CoV) refers to a family of viruses that can cause illness in both humans and animals, mainly respiratory or intestinal. Coronaviruses have been around for a very long time; they are typically mild, and usually only affect the upper airways (nose and throat). Four major types of coronavirus have been shown to exist, namely Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma, although only the first two of these are known to infect humans. Just four strands of coronaviruses (229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1) combine to cause 10 - 30% of cases of the common cold across the world. Major coronaviruses include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). SARS was predominantly seen in China between 2002 and 2003, and MERS on the Arabian ...