Professor of Paediatrics and vaccinologist, Royal Childrens Hospital, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI); Associate Dean International, University of Melbourne,
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Jane Tuckerman, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Ashleigh Rak, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Danielle Wurzel, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Margie Danchin, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Even otherwise healthy children can end up in hospital with this winter respiratory virus.
Daryl Cheng, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Margie Danchin, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
It’s natural to have questions about the risks and benefits of COVID vaccines in young children. Here’s what you need to know ahead of Australia’s rollout.
The government’s new $11 million winter COVID and flu vaccine ad campaign gets some things right, but it doesn’t connect on an emotional level or address concerns about common side effects.
If you or your child test positive for COVID, you clearly can’t go to that vaccination or booster appointment you had booked this week. So, when can you go?
While the vast majority of health workers are prepared to accept COVID vaccinations, we need to make sure the concerns of the minority are heard and don’t compromise safety.
The rise of the Delta variant does seem to be associated with more COVID transmission in schools than what we’ve seen previously. But kids are much less likely to become severely unwell.
It’s an absolute priority we find and use ways to support kids to continue face-to-face learning in times of low community transmission, especially primary schools.
Community leaders or trusted work colleagues can be COVID vaccine advocates and help boost vaccination rates. Here are some simple steps they can take.
We need a layered strategy — depending on the amount of community transmission – to ensure the response isn’t the same every time with each snap lockdown: to close schools. Here’s how to do it.
Based on closely following outbreaks in schools and early learning centres across Australia throughout 2020, we have enough evidence to show how students can return to school safely.
The best approach for protecting everyone’s health will require us to provide different vaccines to different people according to need and availability.
There’s no guarantee future COVID-19 vaccines will work in the elderly. So we can consider vaccinating the young first to protect them. Here’s what we need to work out first.
The government should used trusted spokespeople, tailor information so it can be understood by different groups, acknowledge people’s concerns, be transparent, and seek public feedback along the way.