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Speaker 1: COVID. There's a new strain of COVID around and it's

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Speaker 1: called variant LB one and it's in Australia. Apparently it

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Speaker 1: could spread faster than others. It's more contagious circulating now

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Speaker 1: as winter accelerates cases. There are sub variants called KP

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Speaker 1: two and KP three that caused the majority of new

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Speaker 1: infection seven May to eleventh of June, and this came

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Speaker 1: from sub variance of omicron which was around what a

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Speaker 1: couple of years back. That led to a variant called

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Speaker 1: flirt all upper case with the I in lower case

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Speaker 1: detected in the US first. But it shows the COVID

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Speaker 1: virus continues to mutate, seems to be getting weaker, which

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Speaker 1: is the good part. But last week in South Australia

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Speaker 1: we had and this is the lowest number I can

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Speaker 1: remember for quite a while. They put these figures out

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Speaker 1: every week. Three hundred and thirty eight new cases of

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen reported in South Australia in the last week,

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Speaker 1: which is low compared to where we've been. Nearly five

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Speaker 1: thousand people had a PCR test in the last week,

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Speaker 1: in say ten percent decrease on the previous week. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that three hundred and thirty eight

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Speaker 1: means people aren't bothering reporting, which why would you You know,

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Speaker 1: you get COVID these days. It's akin to getting a

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Speaker 1: cold and people say, well, no, it's deadly. Well, yes

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Speaker 1: it can be, but so is the flu, so is

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Speaker 1: RSV depending on your age group and vulnerabilities you know,

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Speaker 1: your immune system, all of that. But three hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty eight new cases. So either we stopped reporting it,

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Speaker 1: stopped going to the doctor with it, or we just

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Speaker 1: don't have too many cases. It's one or the other.

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Speaker 1: I suspect it's the first that people are down on

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Speaker 1: reporting it more so than anything else. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: this new variant with Associate Professor Paul Griffin, Director of

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Speaker 1: Infectious Diseases Queensland Unique. Paul, good morning, thanks for your time.

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Speaker 2: Oh no toalpan, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: What do we know about LB one and is it

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Speaker 1: going to spread fairly quickly? I suppose potentially that's its

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Speaker 1: modus operandi.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. I mean, this is what we've seen

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Speaker 2: COVID do so many times, and the fact that's changed

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Speaker 2: again does mean protection from past infection and vaccination is

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Speaker 2: yet again reduced, and so you know, what this means

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Speaker 2: really is that reinfection risk is still quite high. So

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Speaker 2: we've just had quite a high wave of COVID activity.

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Speaker 2: It does seem that things are a bit on the decline,

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Speaker 2: but given the virus is still changing rapidly, it means

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Speaker 2: that even if you had COVID recently, you remain quite susceptible.

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Speaker 2: So just need to remind people to do all the

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Speaker 2: same things we've been saying for a while now in

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Speaker 2: terms of vaccination, staying home if you're on well, getting

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Speaker 2: empty vials if you're eligible, and reducing your risk of

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Speaker 2: getting COVID by doing things like mask wearing and looking

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Speaker 2: at ventilation, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the vaccine is still important to get it

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Speaker 1: or help with symptoms presumably might not help you, might

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Speaker 1: not stop you getting it, but help with using symptoms.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely right. And so protection is reduced when the virus changes,

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Speaker 2: as it's doing again now, But it doesn't mean the

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Speaker 2: vaccines don't work. In fact, it's quite the opposite. And

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Speaker 2: you know, vaccination still remains our best protection and works

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Speaker 2: really well. And you're right, it doesn't stop you getting

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Speaker 2: COVID necessarily. But what it does do is make it

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Speaker 2: much less severe, much less likely ending up in hospital

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Speaker 2: of course, much less likely of dying from that infection,

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Speaker 2: and unfortunately we are still seeing people die and a

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Speaker 2: big part of that is our vaccination rate is just

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Speaker 2: so low, particularly and the most vulnerable, like those people

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Speaker 2: in aged care for example.

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Speaker 1: Is it vaccination fatigued? Do you think we're all overhearing

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Speaker 1: about this and the needs of vaccination when people just

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Speaker 1: roll their eyes and get on with it.

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Speaker 2: I think fatigue is a huge part of it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's complicated these days. We've got all these different recommendations,

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Speaker 2: so I think for a lot of people that it's

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Speaker 2: not sure if they should get one or if they're eligible,

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Speaker 2: and so the main thing there, I think is you

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Speaker 2: have a chat to your GP or pharmacist. If you

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Speaker 2: are potentially eligible, and particularly if you're higher risk, then

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Speaker 2: you know, get that vaccine as soon as you can.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the situation is even more complex at the

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Speaker 2: moment because we've got quite a high flu season happening

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Speaker 2: right now, and we've also got things like microplasma and

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Speaker 2: hooping coffin in record numbers, so there's lots of things

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Speaker 2: making as sick and so we need to protect ourselves

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Speaker 2: as much as we can.

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Speaker 1: Okay, how often do we or how quickly rather do

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Speaker 1: we update vaccines? What a new virus is detected, How

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Speaker 1: long before a vaccine reflects LB one?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a big problem at the moment is

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Speaker 2: we're simply doing that too slowly. I mean, we're still

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Speaker 2: looking at making better vaccines that don't need to be

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Speaker 2: updated as quickly and that sort of thing, but they're

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Speaker 2: a way off. So we're updating the booster now. It'll

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Speaker 2: probably be maybe another two or three months before we

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Speaker 2: have one, and you know, by that stage we've probably

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Speaker 2: already changed again. So you know, the updated booster from

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Speaker 2: late last year is still a reasonably good match and

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Speaker 2: so still remains relatively effective, but we need to get

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Speaker 2: better at updating it. Like we do with the flu

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Speaker 2: every year. We probably need to update our COVID vaccines

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Speaker 2: a couple of times a year, to be honest.

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Speaker 1: Okay, same symptoms, but there will be one is what

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Speaker 1: we've been accustomed to. The the usual running nose and

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Speaker 1: all of that sore throat and potentially other bits and pieces,

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Speaker 1: loss of smell and taste.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, I mean the symptoms don't necessarily change

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Speaker 2: with these new sub variants. I mean, to some people,

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Speaker 2: they've talked about more gastro intestinal symptoms. So I've seen

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Speaker 2: people turning up to hospital with diarrhea and vomiting that

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Speaker 2: could be due to COVID as well. And you know,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that determine what symptoms you get,

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Speaker 2: including if you've had COVID recently, your other background medical problems,

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Speaker 2: and if you're recently vaccinated, for example. So yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: not that this has changed that particularly, everyone's just a

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Speaker 2: little bit different.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and just finally, I was saying before you came on,

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Speaker 1: how the reported numbers we get the weekly from say Health.

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Speaker 1: Then last week was three hundred and thirty eight cases

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Speaker 1: new cases of COVID in Essa, which to me is

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Speaker 1: my recollection. That's the lowest it's been in quite a while.

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Speaker 1: Isn't just a bit of fatigue there that people aren't

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Speaker 1: reporting having COVID anymore? I imagine the number is probably

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Speaker 1: far higher than that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean we know that it's

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Speaker 2: many times that, maybe ten times or even more. And

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Speaker 2: you know part of it is we stopped recording rapid

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Speaker 2: engine tests if people are still doing the right thing

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Speaker 2: and getting tested and we don't really track that that well.

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Speaker 2: But for a lot of people, they're just not getting

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Speaker 2: tested and that's the problem. For a few reasons. Is

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Speaker 2: that we do have the fluent covid, which we have

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Speaker 2: anti virals, microplasma and hooping cough, we have antibiotics, and

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Speaker 2: so particularly for people who are really sick or vulnerable,

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Speaker 2: it's important that we know what they have so we

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Speaker 2: can give them the right advice and potentially treat them

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Speaker 2: as well. So you know, it's a timely reminder that

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Speaker 2: we do still want to test people so we can

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Speaker 2: treat them appropriately, but also so we know you know

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Speaker 2: what's happening with COVID and these other infections in the community.

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Speaker 1: Associate Professor Paul Griffin, thank you for your time.

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Speaker 2: It's a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Director of Infectious Diseases, Queensland UNI,