Category: Immunisation
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A rare COVID silver lining – Lauren Richardson on meeting ‘her people’ in VIC Department of Health
Jeremy Lasek, PHAA Our recent request for your stories to capture the essence of a career in public health has uncovered fabulous case studies. Today, we meet Lauren Richardson, who found herself swept up in the Victorian Department of Health’s COVID-19 response. Let’s start at the beginning. Lauren says she…
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The Code COVID19 International Update – 23 September 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson This is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for the Australian and New…
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Drugs, advocacy, and understanding public health’s ‘new frontier’: it’s conference week
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA The Australian Public Health Conference 2021 starts this Thurday 23 September, and features a stellar line-up of presenters. One final reminder, this year’s conference is virtual only, so if you haven’t cancelled your travel plans and accommodation in the national capital, please make that a…
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The CODE Update – 16 September
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for the Australian…
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Two Ruby Princess passengers on living with ‘long COVID’
Henry Karpik (left) and Don Jones Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Henry Karpik was blunt. “I was supposed to be dead,” he said. Having been given what he calls “a second shot at life”, the former passenger of the cruise ship Ruby Princess andCOVID19 -survivor, Henry Karpik, recently celebrated a quiet…
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PHAA board member, Dr Summer May Finlay, part of community-led COVID19 vaccination campaign
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA One of the leading lights in Australia’s public health sector, proud Yorta Yorta woman, Dr Summer May Finlay, is leading the call for more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to get vaccinated against COVID. Prompted by recent data from the Department of Health showing a big…
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A Q&A with a WHO expert on Defeating Meningitis
Melanie Parker – PHAA Intern The global COVID-19 pandemic has overshadowed much of the other work public health professionals and researchers are involved in. This includes climate change, obesity, and other communicable diseases such as meningitis. Meningitis can have devastating impacts on individuals and increase financial burden on the…
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Vaccine Hesitancy: Should We Be Worried?
Veronica Martinez Harris and Michelle I Jongenelis – PHAA members Never has there been a more important time in living memory to get vaccinated, with Australia’s ability to effectively tackle the COVID-19 crisis heavily dependent on high vaccination rates. Despite this, Australia’s vaccine rollout has experienced multiple setbacks since…
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Study shows restrictions on the unvaccinated won’t necessarily deliver COVID-19 vaccination success
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Today marks Day 171 of Australia’s vaccination rollout. It hasn’t been plain sailing, but as a nation we’re certainly headed in the right direction with a record number of vaccinations week on week, largely thanks to an increase of vaccine supply. More than 13 million…
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The CODE Update – 15 July
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet here There is not a lot of good world news this week, including what’s happening with COVID. A few countries clearly are slowing down, presumably due to vaccination programmes, and in most countries in Europe fatalities have really fallen. Which has contributed, at last,…
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Experts tell conference lack of vaccine remains our major issue
Jeremy Lasek, PHAA Just when you thought our COVID-ravaged world couldn’t get more crazy, we get a week like this week. With new coronavirus cases springing up across the country in the past week, every state and territory has introduced a mix of strict new lockdown rules, border closures and…
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Immunisation in the COVID pandemic era – conference to dissect our biggest global challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic – the worst global public health emergency in a century – has changed the way we live. Many lives have been lost, economies brought to their knees, and it is fair to say that nothing is as it was just 18 month ago. Today marks the beginning…
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The CODE Update – 27 May
Priscilla Robinson Click here to view the latest spreadsheet This has been a mostly much slower week in COVID-19 land, and many places have seen a reduction in new cases this week from last week. The fatality numbers are mostly also reduced although not by as much – presumably a…
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US support for waiving COVID vaccine intellectual property is a huge step. Australia must follow
Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University Yesterday, the US Biden administration declared its support for waiving intellectual property rights, including patents, for COVID-19 vaccines. This decision represents a huge breakthrough in discussions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that have been deadlocked for more than six months. Shortly afterwards, New Zealand’s…
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Covid-19 Vaccines: Ethics and Who is “Us”
Terry Slevin A pandemic is not a competition between companies, but a race between humanity and a virus. (Nature editorial, 30 March 2021) The Covid-19 vaccination program is the dominant health and political news story of the last few months. It is also becoming an ethical discussion of the difference…
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The CODE Update – 29 April
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet A short report this week as I am away from home without reliable internet access. I have not completed the snapshot because this is a day early and I may not have internet access tomorrow. As they say, we live in interesting times. India…
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Over 700 health experts are calling for urgent action to expand global production of COVID vaccines
Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University and Michael Toole, Burnet Institute Today, we are joining over 700 health professionals and academics in sending an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging him to take a leadership role in expanding the global production of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical tools to…
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The CODE Update – 22 April
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet This will be a very brief update as I am travelling this week. First to note is that the media-reported ‘surge in death rates’ is not really accurate, and the overall rate continues to fall. (For new readers, I have included the very first…
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The CODE Update – 15 April
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet data Firstly, I think there needs to be some perspective on all of the ‘surges’ of the past week. The first and third countries on the general epidemiology sheet (USA & Brazil) have between them had nearly one third of all of the world’s cases,…
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It’s that time of year again. New survey reveals where Aussies get their flu shots
Public Health Association of Australia Winter is coming…and every year influenza causes thousands of hospitalisations and hundreds of deaths in Australia, though 2020 was an outlier in this regard as COVID restrictions led to a significant decline in influenza cases nationally. Vaccination is one of the most effective ways to…
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The CODE Update – 7 April
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet data I hope you all had a happy and safe Easter break. There is quite a lot to talk about this week, so this will be quite long, but please bear with me. The snapshot shows that worldwide there is only a tiny rise…
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In the lead into Easter….it’s time for a deep breath
Terry Slevin, PHAA CEO We’ve made our way through the unforgettable 2020. We’re coming out the other side and have coped with the many adjustments and trials of quarter one, 2021. Vaccination programs have dominated the news and the expectations that have been created haven’t been delivered. Frustrations have been…
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PNG in COVID crisis: Australia needs to urgently provide one million more vaccines
The PHAA’s One Health Special Interest Group Convenor, Dr Andrea Britton, recently returned from PNG where she’s been working for the Burnet Institute PNG on a Fleming Fund Country Grant project to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Just out of quarantine, Andrea reflects on her observations, the massive challenges PNG faces in…
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The CODE Update – 1 April
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet data This week there seems to be an increase in cases and fatalities in all areas, apart from fatalities in Africa which are down from the previous week. This is quite perplexing as immunisations in Europe and North America are going well, and I…
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The CODE Update – 24 March
Priscilla Robinson View the latest COVID data spreadsheet here The main news of the week is that cases are up in all WHO regions. Fatalities are also up, but not by as much as cases. How much of SEARO’s rise is due to PNG’s sudden increase is not at all…
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The CODE Update – 17 March
Priscilla Robinson View this week’s spreadsheet This week there are some interesting – and slightly concerning – changes in patterns. Overall this week, the snapshot shows that whilst cases are up about 10% overall, fatalities are down compared with last week. Cases are currently rising in half of the WHO…
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The CODE Update – 11 March
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet here This week is pretty much business as usual (it feels rather like the ‘new normal’, but I do hope it isn’t). The overall rate of new infections is much the same as last week, with small increases or decreases in each WHO region.…
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Yes, export bans on vaccines are a problem, but why is the supply of vaccines so limited in the first place?
Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University News of the blockage of a shipment of 250,000 COVID-19 vaccines from Europe to Australia has caused concern and outrage. The immediate problem will probably be quickly solved through diplomatic channels. Even if it is not, onshore manufacturing of the AstraZeneca vaccine will soon make…
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The CODE Update – 4 March
Priscilla Robinson View the latest spreadsheet We have had some quite panicked publicity in Australia over the last three days about a global rise in case numbers, and about the use of AstraZeneca vaccines in over 65s, so I will provide some information about these issues. Firstly, this week’s snapshot…