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Bio: ID physician, epidemiologist/statistician. Past President @ASIDANZ. Opinions my own. RT ≠ endorsement
Location: Australia
Allen Yung's Golden Rules of ID @IDstewardship @davidantibiotic #FOAMed
Great to see the breadth of work across the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash, during a challenging time for everyone.
Amid the other news, a note of the passing of one of Australia's greatest scientists, Dr Ruth Bishop who discovered rotavirus in 1973. This led to the development of the rotavirus vaccine which has saved millions of lives globally.
mcri.edu.au/news/vale-profes…
1/ Reducing hypoxic pneumonia by 29% and pneumonia hospitalisation by 57% will dramatically shape child health in high-incidence countries. This is the power of pneumococcal vaccination. We must do more to ensure equitable access and promote its use.
authors.elsevier.com/sd/arti…
So sorry to hear of the passing of Chris Del Mar, one of Australia's leading researchers in primary care. Thoughts are with Tammy and all his family and friends.
Oh no - RIP Paul Farmer, one of the giants of global public health.
We don't advise this - it is difficult to draw up 0.1mL reliably (an error of 0.05 mL wouldn't be uncommon), and potential to mistakenly give a full adult dose to a child (known high adverse event rate from early studies)
Watch this to the end - Courtney says what many of us are feeling at the moment.
Congratulations Karin on being recognised as an @AAHMSFellow ! @MonashMSDI
Great account of what's involved in contact tracing
theage.com.au/national/victo…
Listening to great talks from Mark Schipp (Australian CVO) and Trevor Drew (ACDP/AAHL) at #zoonoses2021 webinar series @ASIDANZ. Over next weeks, sessions on parasites, Q fever, biosecurity, infection control, emerging zoonoses, foodborne zoonoses, and vector borne zoonoses
Thanks to David Looke and Rowland Cobbold for organising the series with the organising committee. The irony of a conference on zoonoses disrupted by a zoonosis isn't lost on me!
Been working on one of the COVID wards @TheRMH last few days. Some reflections (thread):
It’s busy. We now have 3 wards for patients. Plus 2 ‘pods’ in intensive care. Patients continuing to arrive for care.
A shout out to my local MPs @joshburnsmp and @SouthwickMP for working together across the political divide to respond to the cases of COVID in the local community.
A terrific message. “For all of us”
Addressing vaccine hesitancy and the urgent need to lift vaccination numbers, artists across Australia have come together to launch a new public health campaign urging audiences to get vaccinated against #COVID19
artshub.com.au/2021/07/19/ar…
But we are still concerned about clotting ("TTS"), which is a rare but serious side effect. If an SCG full of younger people got vaccinated, there might be 1-2 cases of TTS.
We had tried to show the risks and benefits using scenarios - the risk of getting COVID in Sydney now is roughly approaching the Australian first wave risk (p4 in this document), but parts of Sydney are approaching the Victorian second wave scenario (p5) health.gov.au/sites/default/…
If you choose to get vaccinated with AZ, we want you make this decision with eyes wide open, so we recommend you talk to your GP or vaccine provider about this.
Some topics you may want to discuss - what is your risk of getting COVID? What are your personal circumstances - your medical history, do you live with elderly parents, what risk are you willing to take? What is TTS and what should you look out for if you get vaccinated?
If you choose to wait for Pfizer, I'd rather you did this as a fully informed decision.
Hope this helps, and I hope the outbreak in NSW comes under control soon.
(ducks for cover)
Hi @Jan__Fran. I won't try to give you medical advice without knowing your personal circumstances, but I'm sorry that you've had a difficult time seeking advice.
I'd thought I'd talk you through the advice ATAGI provided today about vaccines for people in Sydney at the moment.
health.gov.au/news/atagi-sta…
COVID is more severe in older people, so the benefit of vaccination is greater in older people. I'd strongly recommend older people in Sydney get the vaccine because they really don't want to get severe COVID.
This isn't to say that younger people don't benefit from being protected by vaccination. Young people generally don't die from COVID, but some end up in hospital, there is "long COVID", you may just want to get protected so you can stop worrying.
Vaccines also do prevent transmission so there is a benefit to those around you and to the community if you are immunised.
ATAGI said today that people under 60 should re-consider the benefits and risks of earlier protection with AZ if they can't access Pfizer, because the current outbreak has changed the risk-benefit equation.
The benefit of vaccination for people in Sydney is greater now there is an outbreak, compared to when it was just a theoretical future concern.
I've been off Twitter for a few months, but just a brief note to confirm that I've completed my secondment to the Victorian Dept of Health and will be resuming my usual roles at Alfred Health and Monash University
The last few weeks across Australia have been a reminder that COVID isn't close to over yet, and I'm sure there will be many challenges to come as we navigate our way through the next stages of the pandemic.
But I'm happy that I'm leaving a Department that is much better equipped to handle what will come and will continue to improve how things are done.
A shout out to so many of my colleagues from the infectious diseases and infection prevention community who have contributed in many different ways to the public health effort. @ASIDANZ @ACIPC
For those of us who were drafted in, it's been quite a learning curve, finding out how government works, keeping an eye on evolving evidence and epidemiology, formulating policy and trying to explain it all to the public.
My thanks to everyone at DH who have supported us all over the last year - not least @VictorianCHO and @euan_wallace, but also the many public health physicians and public servants who have made us all welcome.
While press conferences are the most visible part of my job, I was always conscious that I was representing the work of thousands of people in government.
I don't think I'd fully appreciated the meaning of 'public service' before this - the dedicated army of people who try to make things better for Victorians.
Not everything goes to plan, but what matters is that we learn and that the system improves over time thanks to the tireless work of thousands of people.
My thanks also to Premier (@DanielAndrewsMP), A/Premier (@JamesMerlinoMP) and Ministers (@MartinFoleyMP) for the faith they have put in the public health team to guide Victoria through this challenging time.
Thanks for all the nice comments - was reminded of how far I've come as well!
Or you could wait for Pfizer, which doesn't seem to be associated with this rare clotting disorder. I obviously don't know your personal circumstances and you may want to discuss this with your GP. Hope that helps with your decision.
.@behrooz_hm pointed out I'd got the percentage wrong - 1 in 200,000 is 0.0005% (you get the idea - it's a rare condition)