It’s been two years since Australia first recorded a case of COVID-19, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the virus itself.

On Christmas Day, Australia had recorded a cumulative total of 300,594 coronavirus cases. Last week, that number climbed to 1.95 million infections.

The scale of new infections has stretched graphs so far upward it looks like the first two years of the pandemic simply did not happen. Despite this, the number of people in hospital suffering from COVID-19 is relatively stable, and this morning we’ve woken to headlines declaring the worst is over.

Today on Please Explain, national science reporter Liam Mannix joins executive editor Tory Maguire to explain what the new phase of the coronavirus pandemic means, and if there’ll ever be an end to it.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been two years since Australia first recorded a case of COVID-19, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the virus itself.


On Christmas Day, Australia had recorded a cumulative total of 300,594 coronavirus cases. Last week, that number climbed to 1.95 million infections.


The scale of new infections has stretched graphs so far upward it looks like the first two years of the pandemic simply did not happen. Despite this, the number of people in hospital suffering from COVID-19 is relatively stable, and this morning we’ve woken to headlines declaring the worst is over.


Today on Please Explain, national science reporter Liam Mannix joins executive editor Tory Maguire to explain what the new phase of the coronavirus pandemic means, and if there’ll ever be an end to it.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.