Infection and Immunity

In this episode in our series on COVID-19 the virus, variants and vaccines we are chatting with Professor Kirsty Buising, Royal Melbourne Hospital Infectious Diseases Physician and co-lead of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Hospital Acquired Infections Theme at the Doherty Institute.Last year, she was at the centre of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s response to the rising COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers. She and her team scrutinised wards to try and identify and close any gaps that may have been allowing the virus to spread so freely.One of the aspects they looked at closely was airflow, and examined the impact of portable air cleaners, known as air scrubbers on aerosol clearance.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we published the Doherty Institute’s 2020 Impact Report, which highlights our research, clinical, public health and teaching successes throughout the year and provides insight into the experiences of some of our staff, in their own words.The Doherty Institute was, and continues to be, at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response. From clinicians treating patients in hospitals; scientists continuing to perform tests on suspected cases and viral genomic sequencing; epidemiologists working closely with the State and Commonwealth Governments on policy; and researchers working on antibody tests, treatments and vaccines.In addition to pivoting to COVID-19 research, much of our infection and immunity work continued throughout 2020 under trying circumstances, with many of our staff and students required to work and learn from home under public health orders.In this bonus episode of our series all about COVID-19 – the virus, variants and vaccines, Melbourne Laureate Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, joins us to talk about the year we’ll never forget.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sonya Pemberton is my guest. Sonya is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker - she won an Emmy Award in 2012 and has won the Eureka Award for Science Journalist a record five times.Her films include Jabbed – love, fear and vaccines, Vaccine – Calling the Shots, Catching Cancer and Immortal, which won the Emmy Award in 2012 for Outstanding Science Programming.Her most recent offering, Cracking COVID premieres on ABC TV in Australia on Tuesday 13 July at 8.30pm. It tracks the real-time story of Australia’s scientific response to the pandemic, told by researchers, clinicians, and patients. Doherty Institute experts including Laureate Professor Peter Doherty feature.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re going to take a deep dive into wastewater testing for COVID-19 surveillance – it’s origins, why it’s used and exactly what it can tell us.Associate Professor Bruce Thorley is our guest – he is the Head of the National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory and the W-H-O Polio Regional Reference Laboratory at the Doherty Institute.He is Chief Investigator for Australia’s national polio surveillance program – which includes wastewater testing. Bruce is also involved in the COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program here in Victoria, a collaboration with Melbourne Water, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Monash University.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How could Australia be better prepared to respond to future pandemics?Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the strongest and most effective in the world. And yet, there are still plenty of lessons to be learned.The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity was the first in the world outside of China to grow the COVID-19 virus in a lab, and share it with laboratories in Australia and around the world. In this live panel discussion, the world-leading science, clinical and public health experts from the Doherty Institute will take a deep dive into Australia’s COVID-19 response to pose the big questions: what lessons have we learned? What could we do differently next time? And, how likely are we to face another pandemic in the future?We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We check in with Laureate Professor Peter Doherty to find out how he's doing through Melbourne's lockdown, whether he made it to Dan Murphy's before it began, what he's binge watching on Netflix, his experience of getting the Astra Zeneca vaccine and participating in clinical trials and a release date for his new book, An Insider's Plague Book.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak with Dr Katherine Gibney, infectious diseases clinician, public health physician and medical epidemiologist about the decision to extend Victoria's lockdown, the latest evidence of the transmissibility and infectiousness of current circulating strains, issues around mandating vaccines in healthcare workers and what it was like being a clinician in 2020.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we chat with Dr Jennifer Juno, a Senior Research fellow at the Doherty Institute about what happens to your immune system when vaccinated and when you have recovered from COVID-19.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak with Professor Terry Nolan, Head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group at the Doherty Institute and Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Terry was also the Head of the Australian Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation for 10 years - so knows vaccines!We discuss the latest data on blood clot cases in Australia, should we be looking at combination schedules of available COVID-19 vaccines and what we know about the Moderna and Novovax vaccines Australia has ordered.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been widely publicised that the variant of SARS-CoV-2 associated with Melbourne’s outbreak is the B.1.617, the so-called ‘Indian’ variant. What do we know about it? Is it more transmissible?We speak with Dr Norelle Sherry, a Medical Microbiologist at the University of Melbourne’s Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty Institute, which is responsible for conducting the genomic sequencing of COVID-19 cases in Victoria in partnership with the Victorian Department of Health.We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and will only take a few minutes to complete.Infection and Immunity – Evidence ExplainedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.