The Late Winter Series 2021 of the Edict continues with a look at how Australia is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guests are science communicator and medical researcher Upulie Divisekera and infectious diseases physician Dr Trent Yarwood.
We talk about the snappily-titled National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response, the supporting modelling from Doherty Epidemiology, how Twitter science is the very best science, hazelnut chocolate, mRNA vaccines, gut parasites, the Reckon Vacuum, vaccine hesitancy, the politicisation of the pandemic response, and much more.
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Episode Links
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Upulie Pabasarie Divisekera is an Australian molecular biologist and science communicator, and is the co-founder of Real Scientists, an outreach program that uses performance and writing to communicate science.
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Molecular biologist at the intersection of art, science, poetry, tech | |Co-founder, @RealScientists | writetoupulie@gmail.com| #BlackLivesMatter
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Computer geek, infection / public health doc, steward, fencer. UQ & JCU, Fan of social justice, 'ninja old guy', Doesn't pity the fool (personal opinions)
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04. Here's everything we know about Australia's four-phase plan out of the COVID pandemic - ABC NewsNational Cabinet has agreed to new vaccination targets, which will dictate the easing of restrictions and the reopening of the nation's economy.
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[30 July 2021] The National Cabinet agreed in-principle to an updated four-step National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response (National Plan) taking into account the Doherty Institute COVID-19 modelling and the Commonwealth Department of Treasury economic analysis. The National Plan charts the way back.
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National Cabinet agreed to formulate a national plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response from its current pre vaccination settings, focussing on continued suppression of community transmission, to post vaccination settings focussed on prevention of serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality, and the public health management of other infectious diseases.
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Scott Morrison has revealed the triggers for moving to the next two phases of Australia’s opening-up plan, aimed at reducing the reliance on lockdowns and increasing freedom for vaccinated international travellers.
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The data shows Australia’s rollout was not just slow to start – the pace of vaccination has also lagged behind many other nations.
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Models of COVID-19 infection and vaccination were used to define a target level of vaccine coverage for transition to Phase B of the National Plan. The model was based on the simplifying assumption of a single national epidemic, with COVID-19 transmission, severity and vaccine effectiveness as for the Delta variant.
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University of Melbourne Professor Jodie McVernon, Director of Doherty Epidemiology answers journalists' questions about the Doherty Institute modelling for National Cabinet.
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As Scott Morrison leans on ‘optimal’ vaccine modelling, the epidemiologists he commissioned say they can’t predict a return to normal.
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Eighteen months into the pandemic the Prime Minister announced a plan for the way out.The plan itself is based on vaccination rates, and predicts we could be living almost as normal when we reach 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated. But how likely are we to reach that target, and when?
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Only 11 per cent of adult voters say they will flatly refuse to get jabbed, suggesting the country will be able to meet the PM’s vaccination target of 70 per cent by December if supply is maintained.
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Du Côté de la Science, a collective made up of 17 doctors and researchers, says it could be because the vaccine was injected intravenously (into patients’ veins) rather than intramuscularly.
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Only good thing that’s come out of lockdown is how it’s reminded me of what truly matters most in life.
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We took our wonderfully velvety caramel, added Bundaberg's unique ginger brew and encased it in our super smooth, 5 Roll Refined Creamy Milk chocolate.
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It seems short, sharp lockdowns are the new black, and are now being used regularly down the east coast of mainland Australia.
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A man who travelled from Greater Sydney to Byron Bay while infected with COVID-19 is accused of failing to isolate himself after falling ill and not using QR codes while visiting the region. Parts of Northern NSW, including the Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore, and Ballina Shire, were placed into a snap one-week lockdown from 6pm on Monday, with residents ordered to stay at home unless there is a reasonable excuse to leave.
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The infected man was reported to have been travelling with two relatives and had not been wearing a mask, socially distancing or checking in to venues using QR codes, according to Byron Bay Mayor Michael Lyon. Mr Lyon said he had been told the man had waited until he was sick before going to hospital."I've heard he didn't believe in the virus. From what I understand, he is not cooperating," he said.
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The Sydney man who travelled to Byron Bay is accused of not using QR codes during his stay and travelling there to view property, in a move the local mayor has slammed as "annoying and frustrating".
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Professor, Sydney Nursing School, Faculty of Medicine and Health; Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health; Visiting Fellow, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
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The Australian Government has secured 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine after it was provisionally approved for use in Australia by the TGA.
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The TGA has approved Moderna for use in Australia with ten million doses to be added to the country's stocks before the end of the year.
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Australia's medical regulator has granted provisional approval to the Moderna mRNA vaccine. The Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved the vaccine for use in Australians aged 18 and over.
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The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved provisional use of a fourth COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Moderna, which is already in use across much of the world.
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The Moderna COVID?19 vaccine (pINN: elasomeran), codenamed mRNA-1273 and sold under the brand name Spikevax, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). It is authorized for use in people aged twelve years and older in some jurisdictions and for people eighteen years and older in other jurisdictions to provide protection against COVID-19 which is caused by infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is designed to be administered as two 0.5 mL doses given by intramuscular injection at an interval of 29 days apart.
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mRNA vaccines operate in a very different manner from a traditional vaccine.
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"Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague" is a 2001 international bestselling historical fiction novel by Geraldine Brooks. It was chosen as both a New York Times[1] and Washington Post[2] Notable Book.
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"The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World" is a book by Steven Berlin Johnson in which he describes the most intense outbreak of cholera in Victorian London and centers on John Snow and Henry Whitehead
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Sellers on websites such as Counterfeit Center, Jimmy Black Market, and Buy Express Documents list COVID-19 vaccine cards, certificates and passports for sale, some costing €400 Euros or about $473.49.
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But what makes the scientists so certain? When gene-editing technology is progressing at such a rapid rate, and there are still major questions around the origin of the virus, how can we really know that we aren’t victims of a bioterrorist attack?
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