School of Population Health

Improving COVID-19 vaccine rollout engagement with diverse communities
Australia launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign last week, beginning with frontline workers in hotel quarantine, health care and aged care. But one critical question is whether the immunisation program will meet the needs of people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. A UNSW Sydney research team, led by A/Prof Holly Seale, has made recommendations about how to better engage with CaLD communities for the vaccine rollout. The researchers examined the challenges faced in communicating and engaging with people from CaLD communities, as well as strategies that are needed to enhance the rollout of the vaccine program.  <Read More Here>

Dr Adam Craig awarded a 2021 Australia-France Social Science Collaborative Research Fellowship
"We are exploring whether a ‘citizen science’ model of mosquito surveillance in the Solomon Islands can help tackle Aedes mosquito outbreaks,” says Adam. “The study will recruit, train and equip citizens to trap, identify and report mosquito catch data to a central authority.”  <Read More Here>

We analysed almost 500,000 police reports of domestic violence. Mental health was an issue
Rare access to almost half a million police reports of domestic violence has revealed a hidden picture of mental health issues in perpetrators and victims. This is academics’ first attempt in the world to use computers to mine the text of so many police reports. These would otherwise have taken humans years to read and analyse.  <Read More Here>

The Oxford vaccine has unique advantages, as does Pfizer’s. Using both is Australia’s best strategy
How do these two vaccines compare, how will they be used in Australia, and what can we learn from other vaccines? Comparing the two Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines induce immunity but in different ways. They both deliver the instructions for how to make a target on the virus for our immune system to recognise the spike protein.  <Read More Here>

Australia’s vaccine rollout will now start next month. Here’s what we’ll need
Australia’s COVID vaccine rollout will now begin in mid- to late February. Vaccination will commence with workers dealing with international arrivals or quarantine facilities, frontline health workers and those living in aged care or with a disability. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government “optimistically” aims to vaccinate 80,000 Australians a week, and four million by the end of March.   <Read More Here>

It's crucial we address COVID vaccine hesitancy among health workers. Here's where to start
Achieving high #COVID-19 vaccine uptake among health workers will not only protect these critical staff members, it will support high levels of uptake among the public. Read SPH’s A/Prof Holly Seale’s latest opinion piece on how we must address #COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health workers.  <Read More Here>

NHMRC Ideas Grant Announcement
Dr Adrienne Withall will lead a NHMRC funded project to enhance screening capacity for health conditions in older prisoners (aged 50+ years). The grant, amounting to $844,050, will help researchers develop a tool that can overcome barriers to fill the information gap in health data of older prisoners. Dr Withall says, “We will use technological innovation to develop and validate a novel screening tool to facilitate the collection of important health, medical and cognitive data, thus bypassing the roadblock created by resource limitations in prisons.” <Read More Here>

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