AJGP, October 2020: a focus on immunisation
The October 2020 edition of the Australian Journal of General Practice covers important topics in immunisation including:
- Immunisation and allergy in children and adults: A case based approach
- Seizures following vaccination in children: Risks, outcomes and management of subsequent revaccination
- Preparing the public for COVID-19 vaccines: How can general practitioners build vaccine confidence and optimise uptake for themselves and their patients?
- Maternal vaccinations
- BCG : An update on current Australian practices
Read the articles in full below:
Australian Journal of General Practice, October 2020
Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) COVID-19 Working Group
The role of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is to provide independent advice to the Minister for Health on all matters relating to immunisation in Australia. In September 2020 ATAGI convened a new SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) working group. The key objectives of this group are to provide advice on COVID-19 immunisation programs and policies, to improve confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines as they become available in Australia.
To learn more, please see below:
Save the date for our first virtual Clinical Vaccinology Update!
MVEC is excited to announce that our first virtual Clinical Vaccinology Update (CVU) will be held on December 7, 2020.
Program details and ticketing information will be announced shortly.
EMA starts first rolling review of a COVID-19 vaccine in the EU
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun a "rolling review" of the AstraZeneca Oxford SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate. Normal regulatory processes for medicines involve the submission of all safety and efficacy data to the Agency at the completion of clinical trials. A "rolling review" means that the Agency can begin evaluating data as it becomes available. By employing this method of approval, the regulation process will maintain its usual quality and safety standards, but be shorter than the usual process due to the time gained by reviewing data as it becomes available.
To learn more please read below:
EMA starts first rolling review of a COVID-19 vaccine in the EU
Frontiers in Immunology: Progress and Pitfalls in the Quest for Effective SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccines
With over 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in pre-clinical and clinical trials, the following article reviews what we know about the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and explores the various vaccine platforms being utilised to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Potential issues including adverse effects and the need for mass production are also discussed, as well as the challenges of rapid and equitable vaccine delivery.
Read the article in full here:
COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 15: Professor Lynn Gillam
In episode 15, our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, speaks to Professor Lynn Gillam. Lynn is a clinical ethicist who trained in philosophy and bioethics. She is a Professor in the Centre for Health Equity, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne; and the Academic Director of The Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The Children’s Bioethics Centre provides support including ethical decision making for clinicians in relation to patient care issues. Nigel and Lynn will discuss some of the ethical issues raised in the setting of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, utilising a framework of points raised by Dr John Lantos from the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, USA, at the recent Bioethics E-Conference hosted by The Children’s Bioethics Centre:
- The importance of realising that not doing something or not conducting research is a decision in itself
- The notion of “too fast can’t be safe” – some steps need to take the time they have always taken, some things can be done more quickly, recognising that if you do nothing, you are allowing harm to happen
- The role of ethical boards and the way vaccines are developed, i.e. the use of younger, healthier participants in research, not the individuals who are getting the worst disease
- The involvement of children and elderly people in clinical trials and the key differences in the ethical considerations of this
- Global equity of access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines when they become available, who gets them first and how should these decisions be made?
- The role of Citizens’ Juries in deciding who has priority of access to vaccines in a pandemic situation
- Mandatory vaccination
- The use of foetal embryonic cell lines in vaccine development
Links
- Australian Financial Review: Vaccine confronts humanity with next moral test
- MVEC: Foetal embryonic cells utilised in vaccine development platforms
- University of Melbourne: Gaining clarity on the ethical issues of a possible COVID-19 vaccine
- BMC Public Health: Including the public in pandemic planning: a deliberative approach
- Social Science and Medicine: The use of citizens’ juries in health policy decision making: a systematic review
- RCH Grand Rounds: Let no pandemic go to waste – how the COVID crisis could lead to better health care delivery
Listen to the episode here:
NEJM: Evaluating and Deploying Covid-19 Vaccines — The Importance of Transparency, Scientific Integrity, and Public Trust
The following article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, discusses the importance of adhering to well-established and transparent regulatory processes when it comes to approving a COVID-19 vaccine. Reassuring the public with robust scientific evaluation from independent bodies, without interference from governments for the purposes of political advantage, is essential to promote public confidence and ensure the success of vaccination programs.
Read the article in full here:
New immunisation reference page: Identifying AEFI in diverse skin colour
The assessment of skin for clinical signs and symptoms is important when identifying adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). Since most dermatological assessment guidelines commonly refer to the presentation of symptoms in patients with light skin tones, the identification of AEFI in a timely manner in diverse skin colours can be challenging for immunisation providers.
Our new reference page details how symptoms such as pallor, cyanosis, erythema and urticaria may appear in diverse skin colours and discusses alternate methods of recognition. For more information please follow the link below:
MVEC: Identifying AEFI in diverse skin colour
COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 14: Dr Bruce Gellin
In episode 14, our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, speaks to Dr Bruce Gellin. Bruce is the President of Global Immunization at the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington. The Sabin Vaccine Institute’s mission is to make vaccines more accessible, enable innovation and expand immunisation across the globe. Bruce took up this role in 2017, prior to this serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the National Vaccine Program Office at the US Department of Health and Human Services where he served as technical and policy advisor to the WHO, focusing on influenza vaccines and global issues of vaccine hesitancy. Bruce has also worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), consulted for GAVI and is one of America’s principle spokespeople on vaccines and immunisations. He and Nigel discuss the following in the context of vaccine confidence:
- The recent halting of the Oxford Astrazeneca trial and how the system that is in place did exactly what is supposed to
- “The Cutter Incident” and the ongoing impact this has had on vaccine safety, particularly from the manufacturing perspective
- The vast importance of ensuring immunisation providers understand the vaccine development process as if they don’t understand it and are sceptical this can have a huge impact on vaccine uptake
- The importance of open disclosure in the vaccine development pathway
- How the Sabin Vaccine Institute is meeting the challenge of vaccine hesitancy
- Sabin’s‘Boost’ program for healthcare workers
- How vaccines are monitored once they are in use, also called phase IV surveillance
Links:
- The Sabin Vaccine Institute
- The Conversation: Halting the Oxford vaccine trial doesn’t mean it’s not safe – it shows they’re following the right process
- The Cutter Incident by Paul Offit
- Sabin Vaccine Institute: Immunization Advocates
- Sabin Vaccine Institute: Boost
- The Lancet: Mapping global trends in vaccine confidence and investigating barriers to vaccine uptake: a large-scale retrospective temporal modelling study
- The Lancet: It is time to get serious about vaccine confidence
Listen to the episode here:
New immunisation reference page: Injection site nodules
Injection site nodules are a rare but known adverse event following immunisation. They can occur following any vaccine and are most commonly asymptomatic and self resolving. Our new reference page describes what injection site nodules are and the implications on future immunisations.
To learn more follow the link below: