Above: Jyllie Jackson with Bundjalung man Uncle Gilbert Laurie at the Lantern Parade 2022. Photography by Natsky Copyright - www.natsky.com.au

On the wintry night of 25 June, one of the year’s shortest days, people of all ages took to the streets with lanterns in all shapes and sizes. These ones were a tribute to the locals who used ‘tinnies’ to rescue neighbours trapped in the perilous floodwaters.

 Just how deserving was Jylllie Jackson’s Order of Australia Medal in this year’s Australia Day honours was born out by the success of her ‘baby’, the Lismore Lantern Parade, on Saturday 25 June.

 Now nearing its third decade, the parade was the city’s biggest community event since the Feb-March floods.

Dr Norman Rogers

NorDocs notes the passing in June 2022 of Dr Norman Rogers,a GP / obstetrician / surgeon in Lismore from the early 50s until 1984. Norm was the Government Medical Officer for many years and was frequently called upon in this capacity to visit the police cells and perform post mortems at Lismore Base Hospital.

He was active in local medical politics, being a Board member of both St Vincent’s and Lismore Base Hospitals. He served on the Board of the North Eastern Medical Association, the local branch of the British Medical Association, prior to the establishment of the Australian Medical Association.

He had a long term interest in medical education and was instrumental in founding the Richmond Valley Clinical Society in 1984.

He was a keen cricketer and golfer. In his later years he retired to a house on the river at Ballina and took up sailing.

He was predeceased by his wife Marie and is survived by his eight children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

LGBTQ

In this article, Mark Hughes, Professor of Social Work at Southern Cross University, shares some tips and resources that can help. Mark has published widely on the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ older people, and is the Australian lead on the Global Pride project. This article is one of a series sponsored by Southern Cross University’s Faculty of Health.

GAE

Genicular Artery Embolisation (GAE) has emerged as a novel, minimally invasive treatment for symptomatic mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis of the knee and post-arthroplasty knee pain, and may provide immediate and long-lasting pain relief with improvement in patient function.

Osteoarthritis is a common disease and a major cause of morbidity. It has a rising incidence and prevalence, with data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study1 showing the number of osteoarthritis cases in Australasia has increased by 116% in the last three decades, from an estimated 1.76 million cases in 1990 to 3.8 million cases in 2019, with the knee being the most commonly affected site. 

“I’m not going to waste my shot
It’s time to take a shot”
Hamilton, an American musical

In April 2020 Dr Anthony Fauci, an internationally renowned immunologist and an adviser (somewhat reluctantly) to President Donald Trump as the lead of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said in an interview before The Economic Club of Washington D.C. ‘What keeps me up at night is the emergence of a brand new infection, likely jumping species from an animal; that's respiratory born, highly transmissible, with a high degree of morbidity and mortality. And, lo and behold, that's where we are right now.’

To date the USA has had over 86 million cases of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and a million Americans have died from the disease (in Australia around 50 people are still dying of the disease weekly). The country’s death rate was the second highest worldwide, only slightly behind the leader, Brazil. Such a result seems incredible for the country with the most advanced health systems in the world, although access to high quality care is restricted and depends on being able to afford expensive treatments. It is far from universally accessible. 

American author, Michael Lewis, looked at the first year of the American covid epidemic in his book, The Premonition - A Pandemic story. He describes how the American approach to pandemic planning evolved under the George W Bush administration arising out of the Biodefense Directorate of the Homeland Security Council in 2005.