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The test result confirmed what I had suspected for weeks — I had COVID-19.

This was almost a year ago when testing clinics didn’t exist and masks weren’t mandatory.

It’s seems strange now but in March last year I had to beg a doctor at a Sydney hospital to give me a coronavirus test.

At the time, they were rationed only for frontline health workers.

My positive test result was a bit of a relief. It gave me the answers as to why I was suddenly so lethargic and had lost my sense of taste and smell.

But it also triggered a level of fear I had never experienced.

A month earlier I was in New York City.

I had recently moved there and taken up a job as a graphic designer at a large company.

As a healthy 37-year-old, I wasn’t too concerned about catching the virus.

But Americans were starting to get anxious.

Everyone turned and stared when someone coughed on the subway. People started wearing gloves, and stores were emptied of hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes.

I suspect I caught the virus on a return flight from Atlanta.

I had gone away for the weekend to visit a friend.

She never fell ill but when I returned to New York I knew something wasn’t right.

The next day I woke up incredibly tired and had no energy to work.

I assumed I was simply exhausted from the weekend away. But soon after I had flu-like aches in my joints as well as in strange places like my jaw.

I called my boss who advised me to contact the national COVID hotline. When I did the lady I spoke to dismissed my concern as I didn’t display the COVID symptoms of a dry cough or shortness of breath.

According to her, it was the flu and I would be fine in no time.

Nevertheless, I stayed in my apartment that whole week, paranoid I had the virus and may run out of breath — as that was one of the COVID symptoms.

Soon after I decided to return to Australia.

I was nervous the Australian border would shut soon.

Also, I wasn’t confident in the US healthcare system. Having only lived in the country for four months, I wasn’t about to navigate it on my own during a health crisis.

Most of all, I decided to leave because of Donald Trump. To me, the thought of the then-US President leading a national health pandemic was a recipe for disaster.

So I booked a ticket to Sydney on the night of Friday, March 13 and boarded the plane the very next day.

When I arrived at Sydney airport, I was handed an Australian Government pamphlet instructing travellers to self-isolate for two weeks. Hotel quarantine wasn’t mandatory then.

I was so petrified I would pass on the deadly virus to my mum, we went to extreme lengths to stay COVID-safe.

When she picked me up, we both wore gloves and masks and we didn’t hug.

As soon as I arrived home I had a shower and then basically stayed in my bedroom for two weeks while my mum brought food to my door. I sprayed down everything after I used it.

One morning I went to the kitchen and I heard on the radio that France was adding loss of taste and smell to their list of COVID symptoms and I froze.

Since arriving in Australia, Mum was cooking me meals and I kept thinking that food in Australia didn’t taste like anything.

She would also sometimes bring me a little frangipani with my meal and I would pick it up and think “Oh frangipanis don’t smell like anything this year”.

Until then, there was little knowledge that a loss of taste and smell were potential signs of coronavirus and that’s when I decided to get tested for COVID immediately.

I informed my work and a few friends about my diagnosis. But mostly, I kept it to myself.

There was so much stigma at the time, I didn’t want to tell people.

I also discussed it with my mum and we agreed it was the best route to ensure we didn’t create any unnecessary panic amongst friends.

It wasn’t until two weeks after the positive test result that another test confirmed I was completely clear of the virus.

My experience of COVID has shown me how it can differ a lot from person-to-person. For some it can be very mild, while for others it can be severe or even fatal.

Reflecting on the past year, it’s incredible to think how much has changed in such a short space of time. It’s taken me months to come to grips with that.

The biggest thing I’ve learnt is to be more flexible. When things which you have no control over turn upside down, it’s OK to let go.

When I left my New York apartment last year, I honestly thought I’d be back in a few months.

Like everyone else, I had no idea of the catastrophe that would unfold.

To date, more than 400,000 people have died from coronavirus in the United States.

I’m glad I made the decision to come back home.

Australia has weathered the pandemic far better than the US and our health system is better equipped.

If I’m honest though, I don’t love being here. I would go back to New York in a heartbeat.

But when that will be is anyone’s guess.

2014年，当西非爆发埃博拉病时，药物监管机构花了五年多时间才批准疫苗。

然而到了2020年，研究人员能够开发多种保护性的新冠病毒疫苗，并在病毒被发现后的12个月内就获得批准。

疫苗不仅有望控制这一场大流行，也是一项惊人的、无与伦比的科学成就，

但这也让一些人疑惑：如果疫苗通常需要几年才能开发出来，那我们是如何这么快就到了今天这个地步的呢？

先前的研究和疫情准备

人们很容易认为新冠肺炎疫苗的开发是在大流行爆发后开始的。事实上，科学家们花了数年时间开发了一种疫苗技术用来快速应对新出现的病毒——有时被称为“X疾病（Disease X）”的威胁。

多亏了像流行病预防联盟（CEPI）这样的资助机构，牛津大学的研究人员才得以持续研究一种可以快速调整为应对新冠病毒的疫苗。

这项技术包括使用一种无害的普通感冒病毒（能够感染黑猩猩），并对其进行改造，使其携带想要预防的其他病毒的蛋白质。

这项研究意味着一旦SARS-CoV-2（导致新冠肺炎的病毒）的基因序列可用，牛津团队就能够使用该病毒的基因蓝本来修改他们的疫苗，并着手进行临床试验。

同样，使用基因技术开发不同的疫苗方法——就像辉瑞（Pfizer）和莫德纳（Moderna）的新冠疫苗都使用到的那样——使研究人员的工作速度比依赖传统疫苗制造方法（如弱化或灭活部分病毒的方法）要快得多。

像牛津疫苗一样，基因疫苗可以快速制造，因为它们只需要SARS-CoV-2的基因序列，而不是实际病毒的样本。

数十亿澳元的资金投入

疫苗研究需要钱，很多钱，而且通常很难获得。

而事实证明，在疫情大流行的时候，面对大面积的社会和经济破坏，疫苗研究的资金就没那么难获得了。

多亏了政府、私营部门和像CEPI这样的资助机构提供的约合数十亿澳元的资金，研究人员可以立即获得对新冠疫苗的大量资助。

多项临床试验得以迅速启动，制药公司甚至在知道疫苗是否有效之前就能够生产和储存疫苗。

在正常情况下，制药公司从来不会像这样“押宝”，因为如果疫苗失败，他们不得不销毁制剂，那代价就太昂贵了。

但在疫情大流行中，拥有合适的基础设施和一定的疫苗剂量储备是至关重要的，因此政府承担了更大的开支风险。

官僚作风减少 试验接连不断

疫苗开发通常需要很长时间的原因之一在于测试过程本身——具体来说，是临床试验不同阶段之间的时间。

首先，疫苗需要在实验室的细胞中进行测试，然后必须证明它是安全的，可以防止动物感染。接下来，研究人员必须获得批准才能在人体上研究这种疫苗，并获得资金开始三轮人体试验阶段的第一阶段。

第一阶段：在少数人身上进行测试，这部分旨在确保疫苗是安全的。
第二阶段：更多的人体试验——疫苗会引发强烈的免疫反应吗？
第三阶段：进行大量人体试验，确认其有效性和安全性。
每个阶段通常包括撰写资助申请和招募数百到数千的临床试验参与者。

在每个阶段，制药公司还希望评估数据，并确定这一疫苗是否值得继续进行下去。在以往，所有这些工作可能需要数年时间。

虽然新冠疫苗经过了同样严格的安全检查，但临床试验被优先考虑，所以几乎不需要等待。

多亏了大量的资金注入和许多愿意参与研究的人，科学家们才得以让各阶段的临床试验并行开展——例如，在他们还在完成第一阶段试验的时候就已经着手为第三阶段招募人员了——而不是按顺序（慢慢地）做事情。

这一做法除了能让他们更早地将数据提交给药品监管机构外，还将试验过程缩短了至少几个月甚至几年的时间。最重要的是，过程中没有牺牲疫苗的安全性。

幸亏这是一种“冠状病毒”

2020年之前，我们大多数人都没听说过“冠状病毒（coronavirus）”这个词，但是对于医学和科学界的人来说，这个词并不新鲜。

冠状病毒是一个众所周知的病毒家族，1/3的普通感冒都是由其引起，它也是2003年的非典疫情和2012年中东呼吸综合征（MERS）的元凶。

得益于以往对SARS-CoV、MERS-CoV和其他常见人类冠状病毒的研究，科研人员对于SARS-CoV-2的认知并不是一张白纸。

他们对这一病毒的生物特性已经有了一些了解，包括它最重要的刺突蛋白（spike protein）。

先前的研究表明，刺突蛋白对病毒在人体内站稳脚跟至关重要，也是有效疫苗的一个成熟目标。

墨西哥医疗级氧气价格随疫情蔓延飙涨，氧气罐更是盗卖的热门物件。首都墨西哥城北部图尔特佩克（Tultepec）市运送44大桶氧气罐货车被歹徒骑劫，同日”墨西哥社会保险局IMSS”索诺拉（Sonora）州医院也有大氧气罐失踪。首都”红十字会”救护车在接运新冠患者时，车上价值10万比索（等值4935美元）的3个大氧气罐被劫。

氧气！氧气！

“公民安全与保护部”（SSPC）资料，1月份全国7州发生13宗氧气罐抢劫案，犯罪团伙组织偷窃、转卖和哄抬氧气罐，市价高出原先3倍。

“联邦消费者检察署”（PROFECO）推出”送回一个空罐救人一命”的视频，重申氧气罐数量充足，氧气厂加班加点供应。症结在于民众将氧气罐留家备用，从而出现供应缺口。
首都政府也宣布在16个大区设立55个氧气加灌站，并设立专供贫困病患领取各界捐赠氧气罐的站点，缓解短缺现象。

委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯•马杜罗（Nicolás a Moros）上周宣布，由本国菁英开发的Carvativir（卡瓦提比）可以清除体内100%新冠病毒，通过国家测试后已获得制造许可，即将向全国发放，作为治疗新冠的辅助药物。

马杜罗说，以19-20世纪名医荷西•格雷戈里奥•赫南德斯（José Gregorio Hernández）命名的”奇迹水”（Gotas Milagrosas），主要成分DR-10分子与治疗丙型肝炎和埃博拉（Ebola）的药物相仿，2020年赫南德斯以神迹获梵蒂冈封圣。

但“委内瑞拉科学研究所研究者协会” （Asociación de Investigadores del Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas）发表51位成员连署声明，表明公布测试过程及数据前，无法支持该药疗效的说法。

“委内瑞拉国家医学科学院”（Academia Nacional de Medicina de Venezuela）声明，将期待更多验证后做出回应。

“泛美卫生组织”（PAHO）卫生紧急情况部副主任西尔万·阿尔迪吉耶里（Sylvain Aldighieri）表示，“泛美卫生组织和世界卫生组织并未验证该针对新冠肺炎的新疗法。 ”这是“每个国家药品监管机构的责任”。

澳洲当局今天宣布，西部海岸城市伯斯（Perth）发现一名检疫旅馆保全人员的2019冠状病毒疾病（COVID-19）病毒检测呈阳性反应后，将展开5天的紧急封锁。

伯斯今天晚上起大概有200万居民必须留在家里，附近皮尔（Peel）和西南地区（South West）的居民也一样。

学生原定2月1日返回学校的计画将延后，居民只能离开家去运动、看病、从事必要工作或购买食物。

官员们说，这是西澳州（Western Australia）10个月来出现的第一起社区传播病例，因此推出新规定。

西澳州长麦高恩（Mark McGowan）说：「我们的模式是非常快速和严格地处理疫情，以便控制疫情，不会像你在在世界其他国家看到的让疫情在社区传播。」

当局认为，这名男子是从在伯斯检疫旅馆隔离的返乡旅客身上感染病毒。

这名返乡旅客据信感染了英国变种病毒。这种病毒比先前在澳洲发现的病毒更具传染性。

咖啡馆、酒吧和餐厅已被下令关闭，同时禁止前往医院等医疗单位探视，婚礼也得取消。