We were privileged and honoured to be able to listen to Jemma speaking at our lunch meeting about her work in tracking the covid 19 virus in NZ using the science of genomics.
Jemma is a senior lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Otago University and a world-leading authority on viruses.
She explained how viruses can spread by jumping from host to host, and if successful this can lead to major pandemics as we are currently experiencing. The original host was an animal reservoir- most probably a horseshoe bat or pangolin but this hasn’t been conclusively uncovered. Bats are often involved in coronavirus.
Using genomics, scientists can better understand how viruses can spread in time and space, and genomics has played a “starring role’ in this pandemic.
There are up to 2 million genome linkages in the evolution of the covid 19 virus. It has been described as a “bloody mess”.
Gemma explained how NZ has been able to be prevent the massive spread seen in other parts of the world. There were about early 300 incursions into NZ before the boarders were closed.  20% of these incursions resulted in our “clusters”, but this is a low number probably because of putting the country into early lockdown. Because of this smaller number and early action to contain the spread of the virus, our scientists have been able to be more effective in undertaking effective successful investigations in which they can sequence the infection and link back and identify the sources. This has saved the country from further lockdown.  
Jemma illustrated the success of our scientists by using the example of the aerosol transmission that occurred in the hallway of MIQ hotel while a health nurse undertook a nasal swab test on one resident, and then 20 seconds later took the 2nd test in the person in the next hotel room doorway. The work done on this occasion not  only  showed how infectious the virus could be but it also showed how important the ventilation systems were in the MIQ facilities.
Gemma also showed a graph illustrating the deaths per million people in different countries around the world and talked about the importance of the vaccine in dramatically reducing the percentage of deaths.
She talked about the virulence of the Delta strain and warned that the pattern of its spread across the world shows that NZ can’t afford to be complacent. We are not completely free from the risk. She urged as many as possible to become vaccinated and showed the need for a global approach to vaccination.