Infection and Immunity

As 2023 draws to a close, almost four years on since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed, we continue to see cases and have adjusted to living with COVID-19. So, is the COVID-19 pandemic officially over? In this episode, Infectious diseases expert and Director of the Doherty Institute, Professor Sharon Lewin answers this question and fills us in on what the experts are discussing behind the s...

Laureate Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi shares her insight and experience of the HIV pandemic, reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the response and the lessons that can be applied to COVID and pandemics of the future. Françoise was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for the discovery of HIV. She is Emeritus Professor at the Institut Pasteur and Emeritus...

How severe is Omicron? How is easily is it transmitted? How do our vaccines fair against this new variant? In this bonus episode of Doherty Institute Director Professor Sharon Lewin explains what the evidence is telling us about the Omicron variant. Infection and Immunity - Evidence Explained Please note this episode was recorded on Tuesday, 18 January 2022 before the Federal Government announced...

What does the Director of the Doherty Institute have to say after another year of battling COVID-19? In our final episode of the season we are joined by Professor Sharon Lewin to unpack the scientific evidence after another 12 months of riding out the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19. We talk about what was done well, what we could do better and what 2022 may have in store for us. We want to he...

Wednesday, 1 December is Worlds AIDS Day, with the 2021 edition marking 40 years since the first cases of AIDS-defining illnesses were first clinically documented. So how far has the science progressed when it comes to treating HIV? What is it like today for people living with HIV? Is a cure on the cards? Are there any lessons we can learn from COVID-19? In this episode Jared Stern answers our que...

Last Friday the Doherty-led modelling consortium presented their final report to National Cabinet. What does the latest report tell us? And what have we learned from the previous reports released? To help unpack the data and findings, we’re joined by Professor Jodie McVernon, Director of Epidemiology at the Doherty Institute, who has led the modelling consortium responsible for the report. Show no...

As of Monday, 8 November, Australians over 18 who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine at least six months ago, are now eligible for a third dose. So why do we need booster shots? What does it mean for Australia as we transition to living with the virus? And when should we be rolling up our sleeves for our next dose? To learn more about the latest evidence around COVID-19 vaccine boosters...

COVID-19 research has come a long way since the beginning of 2020, but what initial steps where taken to prepare for the emergence of this new virus? In late January 2020, the team in the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) announced they had grown the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the first Australian COVID-19 patient sample in cell culture. They were the first laboratory to do so...

In late September, we held an event online called COVID-19 vaccines – your questions answered Part 2 with the aim of getting our experts to answer as many questions about COVID-19 vaccines from the audience as possible within an hour and a half. As with our first event of the same name back in March, we couldn’t get through all of them, so we’re bringing you this bonus episode of the podcast to an...

Have you wondered what it must be like working on the frontline in Victoria's COVID wards during the pandemic? In this episode of , we're taken on that journey behind the scenes with Associate Professor Steve Tong and Dr Janine Trevillyan, two very hard-working infectious diseases physicians treating patients in COVID wards at two of our busiest hospitals in Victoria – the Royal Melbourne and the...

Following the release of the Technical Report and Addendum to National Cabinet on 10 August, the Doherty Institute-led modelling consortium was asked to provide “sensitivity analyses” of the scenarios represented in the Report. They were asked to test the robustness of the recommendation to transition to Phases B and C of the Plan at 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination coverage if COVID-19 inf...

Australians are now coming out in droves to get their COVID-19 vaccines as we strive towards the double dose targets that will allow us more freedoms according to the National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID Response. This is supported by new research conducted in July as part of the Optimise Study, which found that more than 86 per cent of Victorians who were part of the study are n...

The Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity developed by the United Nations Development Programme has Australia on par with high income countries, with 56.35 per cent of people having received a first dose. But what about low income countries? Just 2.14 per cent have received a first dose. That’s right – 2.14 per cent. In this episode Professor Kanta Subbarao joins us to help break down this issue. Ka...

The use of antigen tests has been publicly debated since the beginning of the pandemic. But what is the latest official advise for their use in Australia? In this episode in our series on COVID-19 the virus, variants and vaccines we are chatting with Professor Deborah Williamson, Clinical Microbiologist, Deputy Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty...

Last week, Doherty Institute Director of Epidemiology, Professor Jodie McVernon joined Prime Minister Scott Morrison in presenting the modelling that underpinned the phases of the Federal Government's COVID Response Plan. Since the beginning of 2020 Jodie has been advising the Commonwealth Government with a team of gun modellers from around the country on emerging evidence, and pulling together mo...

We welcome back the Patron and Namesake of the Doherty Institute, Laureate Professor Peter Doherty. It’s been a big week for Peter with the launch of his seventh lay book, , published by Melbourne University Press. As the title suggests, Peter recounts his experience and inner workings of the Doherty Institute throughout the first year of COVID-19. In addition, it’s a compilation of his weekly col...

In this episode in our series on COVID-19 the virus, variants and vaccines we are chatting with Professor Kirsty Buising, Royal Melbourne Hospital Infectious Diseases Physician and co-lead of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Hospital Acquired Infections Theme at the Doherty Institute. Last year, she was at the centre of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s response to the rising COVID-19 infections in h...

This week, we published the Doherty Institute’s 2020 Impact Report, which highlights our research, clinical, public health and teaching successes throughout the year and provides insight into the experiences of some of our staff, in their own words. The Doherty Institute was, and continues to be, at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response. From clinicians treating patients in hospitals; sc...

Sonya Pemberton is my guest. Sonya is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker - she won an Emmy Award in 2012 and has won the Eureka Award for Science Journalist a record five times. Her films include Jabbed – love, fear and vaccines, Vaccine – Calling the Shots, Catching Cancer and Immortal, which won the Emmy Award in 2012 for Outstanding Science Programming. Her most recent offering, Cracking COVID pre...

We’re going to take a deep dive into wastewater testing for COVID-19 surveillance – it’s origins, why it’s used and exactly what it can tell us. Associate Professor Bruce Thorley is our guest – he is the Head of the National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory and the W-H-O Polio Regional Reference Laboratory at the Doherty Institute. He is Chief Investigator for Australia’s national polio surveillan...

How could Australia be better prepared to respond to future pandemics? Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the strongest and most effective in the world. And yet, there are still plenty of lessons to be learned. The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity was the first in the world outside of China to grow the COVID-19 virus in a lab, and share it with laborato...

We check in with Laureate Professor Peter Doherty to find out how he's doing through Melbourne's lockdown, whether he made it to Dan Murphy's before it began, what he's binge watching on Netflix, his experience of getting the Astra Zeneca vaccine and participating in clinical trials and a release date for his new book, An Insider's Plague Book. We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episod...

We speak with Dr Katherine Gibney, infectious diseases clinician, public health physician and medical epidemiologist about the decision to extend Victoria's lockdown, the latest evidence of the transmissibility and infectiousness of current circulating strains, issues around mandating vaccines in healthcare workers and what it was like being a clinician in 2020. We want to hear from you! Help us s...

In this episode, we chat with Dr Jennifer Juno, a Senior Research fellow at the Doherty Institute about what happens to your immune system when vaccinated and when you have recovered from COVID-19. We want to hear from you! Help us shape future episodes of our podcast by telling us a little about yourself, how you listen to and what you'd like to hear more of in 2022. The survey is anonymous and w...

We speak with Professor Terry Nolan, Head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group at the Doherty Institute and Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Terry was also the Head of the Australian Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation for 10 years - so knows vaccines! We discuss the latest data on blood clot cases in Australia, should we be looking at combination schedules of available COVID...