Stories

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a unique professional and personal challenge throughout the year. Many unimaginable things happened during this frantic year, from the school closures to the confinement, and we had to adapt and think creatively. The pandemic took me back to the intensive care unit for some weeks, taking care of adults, enduring endless shifts with limited resources. Back home, we prepared and implemented research projects, again with limited resources, for children with COVID-19.  During the first months of the pandemic, we did not need to sleep much […]

The first case of COVID-19 in South Africa was diagnosed in a traveller from Europe to South Africa on the 5th of March 2020. The initial imported infections fuelled the first wave of the pandemic 3 months later, while further mutations of the circulating wild- type virus fuelled the more severe second wave 7 months thereafter. The South African government responded by implementing, several mitigating strategies including lockdowns, social distancing, use of face masks in public and school closures to slow and control community transmission. These control measures had variable […]

The global health crisis of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is changing the world. In the Veneto Region in Italy, an exponential spread of patients affected by COVID-19 has been observed since 21st February 2000, the day of the first COVID-19 positive adult admitted to the University Hospital of Padua. This impetuous pandemic infection put a tremendous amount of stress on many hospitals interfering with ordinary medical practice. Moreover, all the research activities were slowed down considerably with a sudden change in priorities regarding time and funding. Since February 2020, we in […]