COVID-19 Vaccine research
With COVID-19 vaccines rolled out around the world, the Australian population must be adequately equipped to monitor each vaccine and the effectiveness of the public health response.
Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and the Melbourne Children’s Campus have a range of vaccinology and immunisation experts working to monitor COVID-19 vaccines in Australia. This includes work to monitor and evaluate vaccine safety and efficacy, led by Professor Nigel Crawford.
The team, led by Professor Margie Danchin, is focusing on the importance of effective public health communication around vaccination and the role this plays in the overall public health response. The team also aims to find out how families understand and follow public health prevention measures, plus their knowledge of COVID-19, and their trust in the government, to assess how this impacts effective vaccine deployment.
Research
Clinical trial alliance for SARS-COV-2 vaccine
Professor Terry Nolan is contributing to the Doherty Institute’s national initiative, Vax4COVID, which is an alliance of Australian vaccine clinical trial centres with extensive experience and expertise in vaccine research, including pandemic viral vaccines. Ongoing trials are underway in Australia.
COVID-19 vaccine preparedness study
The team, led by Professor Margie Danchin, is working with the Department of Health to engage those who received the COVID-19 vaccine in the early stages of rollout in Victoria. This includes healthcare workers, aged and disability care workers, people over 70 years of age and adults with underlying health conditions. This study aims to understand the questions, concerns, information needs, and decision-making factors of these groups who were prioritised to receive and deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
Associated campus papers
- Editorial: Vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) – Australian Journal of General Practice
- Preparing the public for COVID-19 vaccines: How can general practitioners build vaccine confidence and optimise uptake for themselves and their patients? (2020) – Australian Journal of General Practice
- Intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 in Australia (2020) – The Lancet
- Good reasons to vaccinate: mandatory or payment for risk? (2021) – BMJ Journals
- COVID‐19 and changes in the National Immunisation Program: a unique opportunity to optimise the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) (2021) – The Medical Journal of Australia
- Queue questions: Ethics of COVID-19 vaccine prioritization (2021) – PubMed
- Key steps in our journey to a COVID-19 vaccine program (2021) – PubMed