Lost Voice – COVID's impact on eliminating malaria

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail global efforts against killer infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, leading to more deaths. As limited health resources in parts of Africa, Asia and Papua New Guinea are channelled into controlling the coronavirus, this could set back years of progress in tackling these diseases across vulnerable communities. In this episode, you’ll meet Burnet Institute’s Deputy Director, Professor James Beeson, a malaria vaccine specialist who also works on maternal and child health. Find out how our environment shapes our immune system and why it was possible to develop multiple vaccines for COVID-19, but the only malaria vaccine has a protection level as low as 30 per cent.

Modelling COVID-19 – Can we predict the future?

In an island-continent like Australia, with a population of almost 26 million, how is the coronavirus likely to spread? And how can transmission be halted? In this episode, you’ll meet Burnet Institute’s Deputy Director, Professor Margaret Hellard AM and Dr Nick Scott, the Head of Modelling. They are part of the team behind the Victorian adaptation of the COVASIM Epidemic model, which was first developed by the Institute for Disease Modelling in the USA. Hear how modelling helps prepare our health system and governments for the likelihood of the virus spreading in the future and the risks around that. It’s what informs intervention strategies like international air travel, lockdowns, social distancing, density limits on cafes and restaurants, and home schooling.

Motherhood in a time of pandemic

For some pregnant women in Australia, the arrival of COVID-19 ushered in an unusually strange and lonely time. Reassuring face-to-face antenatal care was replaced by remote telehealth. Many gave birth supported by midwives dressed in PPE gear. In developing countries, women were considered lucky if they managed to secure an appointment with a midwife. In this episode, you’ll meet Burnet Institute’s Professor Caroline Homer AO, a leading midwifery researcher and maternal and newborn health expert. She talks about the crushing emotional toll of the pandemic on expectant mothers worldwide, alongside the success stories for maternal health.

Is COVID-normal really possible?

Asking people to behave differently to how they would normally, is complicated. In a country like Australia, with over 270 different ancestries and a quarter of the population born in non-English speaking countries, it’s even more complex. Why then do we blame people for not following the public health restrictions when effective, targeted communication campaigns have been missing? In this episode, Burnet Institute Deputy Director, Professor Margaret Hellard AM explains how you can influence communities to embrace COVID-safe actions – and avoid stigma.

Everyone’s an epidemiologist!

Epidemiologists have become the new rock stars in an era of coronavirus. It’s these ‘disease detectives’ who have kept the world informed about how the virus has been spreading and how it might spread in the future. In this episode, you’ll meet Professor Mike Toole, a 40-year veteran of disease control whose face now pops up all over the world’s media. Mike is an epidemiologist at Burnet Institute and the technical advisor to the Know-C19 Knowledge Hub. He had to shelve his retirement plans in Egypt, to help solve the COVID-19 puzzle.

No-one is safe, until everyone is safe

Why can’t a wealthy country like Australia, with its world-class medical resources simply shut out COVID-19? In this episode, Burnet Institute’s Professor Leanne Robinson, Program Director for Health Security unpicks the reason we can’t just barrier ourselves off from the rest of the world. She points to glaring inequalities on our doorstep, in countries like Papua New Guinea where she has lived and worked for more than a decade, and warns that ignoring this inequity will be at our own peril.

Are vaccines the silver bullet?

The speed of vaccine development for COVID-19 has amazed the most seasoned of scientists. So, how did we get here so fast? And will the vaccines continue to stop death and disease, days off work and ongoing economic disruption in its tracks as the virus keeps mutating? In this episode, you’ll meet Burnet Institute’s Professor Heidi Drummer, Program Director of Disease Elimination, who thinks no-one will be untouched by COVID-19 in 20 years time, and why the need for a coronavirus vaccine is up there with measles or smallpox.

A year like no other, the pandemic continues

Why was COVID-19 the virus that become a pandemic? In early 2020 as bushfires ravaged the east coast of Australia, there was an even bigger threat about to engulf the country –the coronavirus. When a virus that’s not normally found in humans took hold, it exposed all our vulnerabilities and inequalities. In this episode, Professor Brendan Crabb tells the story of how science was thrust into the spotlight in the hunt for an invisible enemy as the world looked for answers, and quickly. He also reveals the hardest moments in focusing 24/7 on COVID-19 since the pandemic began.