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With occasional digressions to tell a little of the history and the human story, the past 19 months have had me writing weekly ‘lay explainers’ about virus infections, vaccines, treatments and immunity. Infectious diseases are complex and, for both the writer and the reader, clarifying the underlying interactions can be a challenging exercise. Without exception, we’ve all been on a steep learning curve. Though my professional focus for more than five decades has been on virus infections and how we respond to them, engaging with some key topics – how clinical trials work for example (#53-58) – has had me starting from ground zero. No matter what our expertise, the reality of dealing with COVID-19 has taught us all new lessons.