Latest news with #UniversityOfQueensland
SBS Australia
2 days ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Fewer people are dying from COVID. But experts say the virus is unpredictable
The mortality rate for COVID-19 has steadily declined since 2023. Experts say vaccinations and medicines have reduced the severity and lethality of the virus. But some warn the virus can be unpredictable. The number of Australians dying from COVID-19 continues to decline — but experts warn the virus is unpredictable and have warned against complacency. Mortality data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released last week shows that deaths from COVID-19 have steadily declined since 2023. The number of people dying with COVID-19 — where it is deemed not the primary cause of death — is also decreasing. However, experts have pointed to the unpredictability of the virus and the common rise in infections that occur during the winter months to warn against complacency. The latest ABS provisional mortality statistics report gives a snapshot of COVID-19 deaths as certified by doctors and coroners. The data may not be perfect, as the cause of death can be complex, but it suggests deaths from COVID-19 have dropped dramatically. In 2023, there were 4,609 deaths from COVID-19, and last year, there were 3,871 deaths from COVID-19 recorded. Data from the first four months of 2025 indicate 514 COVID-19-related deaths so far this year. Paul Griffin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Queensland, who has also run clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccinations, said it's great news that mortality rates are declining. "This is likely due to the availability of oral anti-viral medications, vaccinations and greater understanding COVID-19," he told SBS News. "As health professionals, it's clearly great to see less people dying from COVID-19, but it's important to look at that in context. "There are still a number of people who get very sick, and the effects of long-COVID-19 can be debilitating." Griffin said that experts are still working to understand how COVID-19 adapts and changes, and what the long-term health impacts could be. While the downward trend in mortality is "encouraging," he cautioned that the virus remains "very unpredictable". Griffin explained that COVID-19 can mutate, with new strains emerging frequently. "Just recently we've seen a new strain: NB.1.8.1, which seems to have different characteristics from other variants," he said. "When it comes to predicting the future of COVID-19, in terms of severity and mortality, I would be reluctant to say the decreasing rates of mortality will continue. "There's still a lot we don't know." The mortality data from previous years indicates that COVID-19 deaths increase from May to July — data yet to be collected for this year. Catherine Bennett, chair in epidemiology at Deakin University, said there were a range of ways emerging strains of COVID-19 can impact people. "COVID can be different from one infection to the next in the same person," she said. "The other important thing to remember is long COVID, and we don't have good data now and we don't know if our immunity is helping protect us from long COVID." While long-term immunity from multiple boosters is hard to measure, Bennett emphasised the importance of vaccines, particularly now as winter sets in. "It takes a couple of weeks to get the best out of a vaccine to actually get that boosting happening," she said. "And equally, the vaccines last a couple of months. It's when they have their greatest impact and six to eight weeks is the usual duration for our waves. "So, actually, having a vaccine now as winter comes is the right time." Bennett said that a low number of COVID-19 cases in the summer months of 2025 could mean there may be a higher number of infections this winter, as people will be less resistant to the virus. "It's a sad irony that a quiet summer in infections may lead us to seeing more people exposed in winter," she said. She said the more people that get vaccinated, the better the public health outcomes would be, especially for vulnerable groups. A 2024 report from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance found that children aged from 12 months to 5 years old had lower vaccination rates in 2023 than in 2020. Griffin explained that the mortality rates of viruses like COVID-19 and influenza increases in winter for two main reasons. Firstly, they can survive longer in winter months when there is decreased sunlight, lower temperatures, and lower relative humidity. The other factor is human behaviour. "When it is colder, people are more likely to be indoors and in closer proximity to others. There can also be decreased ventilation and airflow as people may close windows to keep the cold out," he said. "Large indoor gatherings can be a hotbed for the flu and COVID-19." His advice is to ventilate where possible with airflow and air purifiers, and to avoid other people when you have flu-like symptoms such as a cough or sore throat.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Record high gold prices prompt revival of outback Queensland mines
Once bustling with gold deposits along railroad tracks, the Cloncurry region in outback Queensland was a literal goldmine. But as the metal's price crashed in the 1990s, so did the digging and prospecting. This year, the gold price hit a record high of more than $5,070 per troy ounce. With the international commodity boom, a new gold rush era is on the rise — and the outback industry might be back in business. Australia is the third-highest producer of gold in the world, behind China and Russia, and ties with Russia as the top country for gold mine reserves. University of Queensland Sustainable Minerals Institute director Rick Valenta said the last time gold prices were close to 2025's numbers was in the 1980s, at $3,400 per troy ounce. "It's the highest it's ever been in history. That's probably a pretty good definition of a gold boom," he said. He said global political uncertainty caused gold prices to skyrocket in the past five years, driving the increase in fossicking, and reopening of historical mines across the country. "A really common thing to do is to go back and re-look at mines, particularly if the production happened 50 to 100 years ago," he said. "Methods for extracting [minerals] weren't as good as they are now, so people left a lot of gold behind. "In many cases you can go back and retreat the tailings and waste from those mines to extract [even more gold]." North West Queensland's historic mining history puts it at the top of the global resources stage, Professor Valenta said. "[North West Queensland] is just one of the special places on the planet that has an enormous amount of mineral endowment, and there's always that potential to take advantage of price cycles on deposits, where that can be done in a relatively short time," he said. The region is home to one of the most productive gold mines in the country — Ernest Henry Copper-Gold Mine — estimated to hold 2 million ounces of gold. Two companies are now looking to cash in on the historic, high-grade deposits in the region and soaring prices. Orion Resources and AuKing Mining Limited plan to re-lease 20 historic gold mines in the region, bringing them back to life under the banner of the Cloncurry Gold Project. The key cornerstone of the project is the acquisition of the old Mount Freda gold mine — a prominent open pit mine that ceased production during the 1990s gold price crash. In 2019, mining company Tombola Gold sought to revive production at Mount Freda, setting up production for AuKing and Orion. AuKing managing director Paul Williams said the project, which covers more than 400 square kilometres, aimed to be producing gold within the next 12 months. "With the gold price where it is and projecting to still be strong, that's probably opened up areas that historically were not available for the earlier mining companies, like Tombola," he said. The companies signed a preliminary agreement late last year and are set to finalise it at the end of July. "We're operating in a great gold price environment at the moment with access to a huge amount of data from the good work that previous groups have done," Mr Williams said. "The previous companies who owned the mines beforehand didn't have the gold price environment that we do now. "But we're looking to get moving with drilling initially and then hopefully probably around the Mount Freda area to start mining." The project is not the only one in the North West and Cloncurry regions vying to capitalise on the boom. Qgold's Woolgar Gold odyssey, 130 kilometres north of Richmond, is awaiting statutory approvals. Mayfield Mt Isa Copper-Gold Project is also mining in the mineral-rich Mary Kathleen region, alongside the recently opened Greater Duchess Copper Gold Project. So, is this a replica of the famous 19th century gold rush era for Queensland? Professor Valenta said while it was impossible to tell the future, current prices and increased prospecting showed a positive direction for the industry. "If you've a few gold coins in the bottom drawer, you'll get more from them now than you ever would have in the past," he said.
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Researcher pushing for international standard for mapping trail running events in bid for Olympics inclusion
An avid trail runner is mapping every twist and turn of the trails around Brisbane's Mount Coot-tha in an effort to bring much-needed precision to the growing sport. University of Queensland research scientist Raimundo Sanchez has covered the trails hundreds of times with a professional GPS. Unlike a regular marathon or running event that can be measured using a calibrated bicycle, accurately measuring trail runs is an endeavour in science and technology. "When you run in the trails, the mountains have a ragged shape and the complexity of the terrain makes it difficult to capture with regular tools," Dr Sanchez said. There's no international standard for how trail running events are measured, which Dr Sanchez said was hindering the sport from being taken more seriously. "That's what I'm trying to mitigate," he said. "I'm trying to develop a reproducible way to compare distances and elevation gain in different trail running races anywhere in the world." Trail run organisers can use a variety of ways to measure and plot out an event. "I've seen races where they design the route solely on the computer and don't even step onto the trails. Others use a proper GPS device or a smart watch," Dr Sanchez said. Not all GPS devices are the same either. It can depend on the resolution of the measurements taken or how accurate it is. A professional-grade GPS can be accurate to within a few centimetres whereas an average smart watch can be from one to five metres. That might be fine for an amateur run, but Dr Sanchez said there needs to be a globally accepted standard of measurement for international events. "If you measure each second it will give you a different distance than if you measure every two seconds," Dr Sanchez said. "It's important to define which is the standard that we want to adopt." Dr Sanchez recently tested his method at the Brisbane Trail Marathon and said he hoped to standardise all Queensland races in the coming months. "If we as a trail runner community want our sport to grow and to become a more mature sport, if we want our sport to get to the Olympics for example, we will need the sport to get serious and to develop and adopt certain standards like this one," he said. Michael Duggan is heading a campaign for trail running to be included in the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. He said Mr Sanchez's research is a "world first" and will help athletes understand how their performance measures globally. "One of the things that we've really struggled with for a lot of years is the ability to be able to measure in a consistent way globally the types of trails that we run on," Mr Duggan said. "It's very important for things like world records to ensure that trail running metrics are spot on." Brisbane's local Olympic organising committee is set to reveal the six sports it will endorse to include in 2032 within the next 18 months. Mr Duggan believes trail running has a good chance of making the cut. "That's because of its growth, its diversity and the size of groups that are actually coming out of the woodwork to join trail running as an amazing new sport."
RNZ News
25-05-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Research shows Tonga's Maka Lahi boulder's journey
Photo: Supplied New research theorises that Tonga's Maka Lahi boulder was moved more than 200 metres inland by a tsunami around 7,000 years ago. Maka Lahi , meaning "Big Rock", is a limestone boulder measuring 6.7 metres tall and 14 metres wide, and weighing approximately 1180 tonnes. It is the second-largest boulder in Tonga, after Maui Rock , and sits at an elevation of 39 metres. The University of Queensland's School of the Environment PhD candidate Martin Köhler is one of the authors of the study published in Marine Geology . He said that he and his team were directed to the boulder local farmers. "We had been surveying the southern side of the island of Tongatapu, looking along the coastal cliffs at evidence of past tsunamis," Köhler said. "[The boulder] is located far inland, outside of our field work area, and must have been carried by a very big tsunami. "We made a 3D model and then went back to the coast and found the spot the boulder could have come from, on a cliff over 30 metres above the sea level." The researchers used numerical modelling to establish that wave heights of around 50 metres, and lasting around 90 seconds, would have been needed to dislodge it from its cliff-edge origin and move it to its resting place. This suggests its emplacement "likely resulted from a landslide-triggered tsunami event", researchers said. Several wave-transported boulders (weighing 0.6-1555 t) had previously been reported on Tongatapu. "The exceptional characteristics of the Maka Lahi boulder, including its dimensions, estimated mass of approximately 1180tn and its high elevation, rank it among the three largest coastal boulders globally and the largest cliff-top boulder in the world." Co-author Dr Annie Lau said Tonga had a long history of tsunamis triggered by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes along the underwater Tofua Ridge and the Tonga Trench. "The findings we have reported on the Maka Lahi boulder are the evidence of a tsunami in the Pacific region in the Holocene epoch, which began around 11,700 years ago," she said. "Understanding past extreme events is critical for hazard preparation and risk assessment now and in the future." The study said like other coastal boulders on Tongatapu such as Maui Rock on the west coast and the Haveluliku boulders on the east coast, Maka Lahi is also interpreted within a mythological framework as one of the " Maui throwing stones" believed to be deposited by the demi-god Maui , while chasing chicken(s) from 'Eua to Tongatapu, as described in a Tongan legend.
ABC News
23-05-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Push for greater action on mitigating extreme weather threats
UQ Professor Paula Jarzabkowski says there's an urgent need to prepare for more frequent and severe weather events.
