CVU mini - Monday 8th February, 2021 (virtual event)
COVID-19 vaccines: a Victorian landscape
Mon 8th February 2021 – Program | ||
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Time (Melbourne local time, AEDT) |
Topic | Presenter |
7.00pm – 7.05pm | Welcome | Dr Daryl Cheng (host) Medical Advisor, MVEC |
7.05pm – 7.20pm | COVID-19 vaccine platforms | Prof Katie Flanagan Head of Infectious Diseases, Launceston General Hospital |
7.20pm – 7.35pm | COVID-19 vaccine safety | Prof Jim Buttery Head of Health Informatics, Epidemiology and Signal Detection, SAEFVIC (MCRI) |
7.35pm – 7.50pm | COVID-19 vaccine rollout – Victoria | Dr Annaliese Van Diemen Deputy Chief Health Officer, Communicable Disease, DHHS Victoria |
7.50pm – 8.05pm | COVID-19 vaccine stakeholder engagement and participation | Prof Benjamin Cowie Medical epidemiologist, Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance, DHHS Victoria |
8.05pm – 8.25pm | Q & A
Closing |
Presenters

Dr Daryl Cheng
MBBS, MPH, FRACP Medical Advisor, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre
Dr Cheng is a general paediatrician who works at The Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He has special interests in immunisation, education and health informatics.

Professor Katie Flanagan
Head of Infectious Diseases, Launceston General Hospital
Prof Katie is Head of Infectious Diseases at Launceston General Hospital and is affiliated with the University of Tasmania, Monash University and RMIT where she is involved in a broad range of research projects, with her main interests being in vaccinology and infectious diseases immunology. She has led a number of vaccine immunology trials and serves as a member of ATAGI.

Professor Jim Buttery
Medical Advisor, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre
Prof Buttery is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and vaccinologist. He is the inaugural Professor of Child Health Informatics at the University of Melbourne. He is Head of Health Informatics, Epidemiology and Signal detection at SAEFVIC (MCRI) and Chief Clinical Research Information Officer & Infectious Diseases Physician at The Royal Children’s Hospital. Prof Buttery also serves as a member of the Strategic Priority Group of WHO Global Vaccine Safety Initiative, the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee, and the TGA Advisory Committee on Vaccines.

Dr Annaliese van Diemen
Deputy Chief Health Officer, Communicable Diseases, DHHS Victoria
Dr van Diemen has experience across both public health and clinical medicine, and holds post graduate qualifications in public health and paediatrics. She has worked in hospital, public health and primary care settings in both Victoria and Western Australia. Her key interests are in antimicrobial resistance, health systems and vaccine preventable diseases. She is a fellow of the Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Professor Benjamin Cowie
Medical epidemiologist, Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance, DHHS Victoria
Prof Benjamin Cowie is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist, holding appointments with the Victorian Infectious Diseases Service (VIDS) at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. He is a medical epidemiologist with Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance at the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, and is an Honorary Principal Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He serves on a range of communicable disease, clinical and public health committees at state, national and international levels.
Register for your free ticket now via the link below!
Clinical Vaccinology Update (CVU) – Monday 7th December, 2020
Thank you to everyone who attended our recent CVU.
If you were unable to attend on the day and are still interested in viewing the presentations, you can purchase access to the recordings via the link below. You will then need to sign in to our Education Portal and enter the password when prompted to view the CVU.
If you did attend and would like to view the presentations again, sign in to the Education Portal and enter the password that has been emailed to you when prompted.
For any queries please contact us via info.mvec@mcri.edu.au.
To stay informed of future MVEC events, please subscribe to our newsletter and social media channels.
Virtual CVU: Mon 7th December 2020 – Program | ||
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Time (Melbourne local time, AEDT) |
Topic | Presenter |
9.00am – 9.05am | Welcome | A/Prof Nigel Crawford Director, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre |
9.05am – 9.35am | COVID-19 vaccine safety after licensure – COVID-19 adverse events of special interest and adverse events following immunisation | A/Prof Helen Petousis-Harris Director, Vaccine Datalink and Research Group (Auckland, New Zealand) |
9.35am – 10.05am | COVID-19 vaccine safety communication | Prof Daniel Salmon Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, USA) |
10.05am – 10.35am | COVID-19 vaccines update | A/Prof Chris Blyth Co-Chair, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Perth) |
10.35am – 10.50am |
Q & A |
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10.50am – 11.25am |
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11.30am – 12.00pm | Vaccine communication and confidence – a consumer focus | Ms. Rachel Callander Speaker, Author, Trainer, Artist, Photographer (Perth, WA) |
12.00pm – 12.30pm | The vulnerable young people catch-up vaccination project | Ms. Belinda Tominc Clinical Nurse Consultant, The Royal Children’s Hospital |
12.30pm – 12.55pm |
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1.00pm – 1.30pm | Influenza and influenza vaccine update | Prof Kanta Subbarao Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza |
1.30pm – 2.00pm | Ms Annie Cobbledick Immunisation Pharmacist, The Royal Children’s Hospital |
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2.00pm – 2.30pm | Dr Meru Sheel Infectious Diseases Epidemiologist and Westpac Research Fellow, Australian National University (Canberra, ACT) |
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2.30pm – 2.45pm | Ms Georgina Lewis/ Ms Adele Harris Research Nurses, Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community |
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2.45pm – 3.00pm | Q & A Closing |
Presenters
Associate Professor Nigel Crawford
Director, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre
Associate Professor Crawford is a vaccinologist and consultant paediatrician, Director of SAEFVIC (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute) and Head of Immunisation Services at The Royal Children’s Hospital. He is an expert in the vaccination of special risk groups (e.g. immunosuppressed patients), a member of ATAGI and the co-Lead of AEFI-CAN.
Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris (Auckland, New Zealand)
Director, Vaccine Datalink and Research Group
Dr Petousis-Harris is a vaccinologist, Associate Professor in the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, and the Director of the Vaccine Datalink and Research Group. She is the chair of the World Health Organization Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) and an elected member of the International Brighton Collaboration Science Board.
Professor Daniel Salmon (Baltimore, USA)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr Salmon is a Professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is the Director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety. His research focuses have been on understanding vaccine acceptance and hesitancy, developing systems and science in vaccine safety, and effective vaccine risk communication.
Associate Professor Chris Blyth (Perth, WA)
co-Chair, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation
A/Prof Blyth is a clinician scientist with the Division of Paediatrics in the University of Western Australia Medical School, a Research Fellow at Telethon Kids Institute and Head of Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital. He is co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation which provides advice to the Australian Government on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Ms Belinda Tominc
Clinical Nurse Consultant, The Royal Children’s Hospital
Belinda Tominc is a Clinical Nurse Consultant at the Young People’s Health Service. She is an experienced community health nurse with a particular interest in improving health access for vulnerable groups.
Rachel Callander (Perth, WA)
Speaker, author, trainer, artist, photographer
Rachel Callander is an award-winning speaker, author, trainer, artist and photographer. She helps healthcare professionals, patients and parents work together to develop an effective communication style that gets the best out of patients, parents and healthcare professionals.
Professor Heidi Larson
Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project (London, UK)
Heidi is an anthropologist and Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project and Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The Vaccine Confidence Project is a WHO centre of excellence on addressing vaccine hesitancy. Heidi is the previous head of Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF, chaired GAVI’s advocacy taskforce and served on the WHO SAGE working group on vaccine hesitancy.
Professor Kanta Subbarao
Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
Professor Subbarao has been the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne at The Doherty Institute since 2016. She is a virologist and physician who specialises in paediatric infectious diseases.
Annie Cobbledick
Immunisation Pharmacist, The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne
Annie has been working at The Royal Children’s Hospital for three years, and began her role as the Immunisation Pharmacist in April 2018. Annie has a particular interest in immunisation access and equity, as well as embracing a multi-disciplinary approach to immunisation.
Dr Meru Sheel (Canberra, ACT)
Infectious diseases epidemiologist and Westpac Research Fellow, Australian National University
Dr Sheel is a global health researcher and an infectious diseases epidemiologist with interest in health emergencies, emerging infectious and vaccine-preventable diseases. Dr Sheel has worked in several dynamic and challenging environments in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region including India, Cambodia, Samoa and American Samoa. In 2020, Dr Sheel was part of the response to the 2019 Pacific measles outbreak in Tonga and COVID-19 response in Tonga and Papua New Guinea.
Ms Georgina Lewis and Ms Adele Harris
Research Nurses, Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community (SAEFVIC)
Georgina is the Clinical Manager of SAEFVIC. She is an accredited Nurse Immuniser and works as a casual Nurse Immuniser with a local council. Her special interests include vaccine safety, surveillance, education and immunisation research.
Adele is an accredited nurse immuniser and a research nurse at SAEFVIC. Her interests include vaccine safety and surveillance, immunisation research and education, and vaccine allergy.