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WHO

October

Palestinians searching through piles of rubble in central Gaza.

After a year of war, Gazans wonder how to deal with tonnes of rubble

Two-thirds of Gaza’s pre-war structures – more than 163,000 buildings – have been damaged or flattened, according to UN satellite data.

  • Mohammad Salem, Hatem Khaled, Emma Farge and Nidal al-Mughrabi

September

Pharma companies say they need help developing new antibiotics are needed to fight superbugs.

Why big pharma wants the government to pay it to make drugs

Drug companies say the government must help pay for new antibiotics people will rarely use. But without them, Australians may die.

  • Michael Smith
Hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat, whose bodies have been found.

Israel finds bodies of six more ‘brutally murdered’ hostages

Israel’s military says the hostages were executed just before soldiers arrived in a tunnel under Rafah. President Joe Biden said Hamas will “pay for these crimes”.

  • Updated
  • Stephanie Kelly and Ari Rabinovitch

August

A Regional Express REX plane at Sydney’s domestic airport.

Labor agrees to guarantee Rex tickets

Catherine King says travellers can continue to book on Rex; Treasurer says no government “has ever overseen more job creation”; “Basic” council stuff-up plunges NSW Liberals into chaos. Follow live updates.

  • Updated
  • Lucy Slade

May

Sixteen people died from vaccine side effects from over 70 million shots, says the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Anti-vax claims flood Senate inquiry. Officials say they’re wrong

The ABS, Health Department and actuaries say there is no evidence to support claims there were more deaths from non-COVID causes due to government vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

  • Tom Burton
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PNG landslide death toll estimates raised to 670

Crews have given up hope of finding survivors buried deep under the soil and rubble after a landslide slammed into a village on the Pacific island.

  • Rod McGuirk

September 2023

Indians standing in a queue outside a hospital wear masks as a precautionary measure against the Nipah virus at the Government Medical College hospital in Kozhikode, in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

What is Nipah and why is the deadly virus flaring up again?

India is on high alert after a resurgence of the potentially lethal virus in southern Kerala state.

  • Alex Millson

August 2023

What giving up that midweek glass of wine really does to your body

It’s easy to notch up too many units when drinking, just out of habit. Here’s what happened when one writer consulted an alcohol coach.

  • Miranda Levy
Protesters in Hong Kong fear contamination of local seafood from release of the water for the next 30 years.

Japan releases nuclear wastewater as China vents fury

Beijing branded the long-awaited release of the treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant as selfish and irresponsible.

  • Sakura Murakami
Vaccine makers’ profits are sliding as COVID-19 slips into history.

The $183b COVID boom is turning to bust for Pfizer and Moderna

Moderna’s share price has already declined 43 per cent since the start of this year, while Pfizer’s has fallen 30 per cent.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
Mary-Louise McLaws predicted the whole hotel quarantine program that national cabinet had signed up to would be flawed by breaches.

‘It’s aerosol, stupid’: the professor who challenged medical chiefs

Mary-Louise McLaws, who passed away at the weekend, stood firm against Australia’s conservative medical profession, arguing the official COVID-19 pandemic response was missing the key driver of infection.

  • Tom Burton

July 2023

common

Common sweetener in soft drinks and yoghurt ‘may cause cancer’

Aspartame is used in everything from Diet Coke and toothpaste to low-calorie fruit yoghurts and cough drops.

  • Laura Reiley

June 2023

Why COVID-19’s origins just got murkier

A four-page declassified report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has muddied the waters, with the identity of patient zero still a mystery.

  • Aaron Patrick
Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT could be a game-changer in many sectors.

The poverty of AI pessimism should worry us all

Spurning AI will rob the world of its best chances to reverse productivity declines, manage an ageing population, and head off new health threats.

  • Jim O'Neill

May 2023

A scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, China, in 2017.

China scientist concedes Wuhan lab leak theory for first time

The comments are the first admission by a senior official that Beijing’s took the so-called Wuhan lab leak theory seriously after years of heated denials.

  • Joe Leahy and Clive Cookson
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The virus remains in early stages of evolution, adapting not only to Homo sapiens, but dozens (if not hundreds) of other mammalian species including hippos.

The pandemic is over? The virus didn’t get the memo

COVID-19 isn’t a pandemic any more. It’s just a never-ending nightmare.

  • Laurie Garrett
The WHO recorded 2.8 million new cases globally, and more than 17,000 deaths, from April 3-30, the most recent numbers available.

WHO ends global health emergency designation for COVID-19

In practical terms, the decision changes little: The virus will continue to have pandemic status, much as HIV does.

  • Stephanie Nolen

March 2023

South Koreans work an average of 1915 hours a year.

South Korea proposes a 69-hour work week

Wage earners fear the plan will ruin work-life balance in a country already well known for workaholism.

  • Andrew Jeong
China gives the impression it has something to hide. It has penalised anyone claiming that it has not been transparent.

There’s a bigger urgency about COVID-19 than discovering its origins

The new cold war between the US and China makes the chance of another pandemic more likely.

  • Edward Luce

January 2023

Travellers wearing protective gear at Jinan West Railway Station in Jinan, Shandong province, China.

Chinese head to home towns as holidays raise virus stakes

More than 2 billion trips across China are expected in the weeks around the holidays, the Transport Ministry has estimated.

  • Martin Quin Pollard and Bernard Orr

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/world-health-organisation-1myq