In the latest of the Turing-RSS Lab international distinguished lecture series, Prof Jodie McVernon and colleagues will be presenting on their experience in Australia. Australia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific Region have had a very different experience of COVID-19 over the past two years from the ‘global north’. Border measures and strong public health controls focused on zero community transmission have resulted in effective elimination in many settings, interspersed with periods of low disease activity. Estimation of COVID-19 risks and the likely impact of public health interventions including vaccination in this context required development of innovative statistical and modelling methods for scenario preparedness and situational assessment. Members of a nationally distributed team of modellers who have supported COVID-19 policy decision making in Australia and the Western Pacific Region will present some of these approaches.

Agenda

0915-0930  Introductions: Prof Peter Diggle (Turing-RSS Technical Director) & Dr Johanna Hutchinson (UKHSA Director of Analytics and Data Science)

0930-1015  Presentation: Prof McVernon and colleagues

1015-1030  Q&A

Register in advance:

https://turing-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kZja5eyGSlOvgvTXEYhK-Q

Jodie McVernon

Prof Jodie McVernon is a public health physician and epidemiologist, with a focus on translating model-informed evidence into policy. Her work undertaken with large multi-disciplinary teams has informed policy for the control of emerging, vaccine preventable and neglected tropical infectious diseases in Australia, the Asia Pacific region and globally.

Nick Golding

Prof Nick Golding is an statistically-inclined infectious disease modeller with wide-ranging experience in policy-relevant modelling on neglected tropical diseases, and emerging diseases such as avian influenza and Ebola. He is interested in Bayesian inference software and semi-mechanistic models of disease transmission.

Freya Shearer

Dr Freya Shearer is an infectious disease modeller. Her research interests include the critical relationships between epidemiological data, situational assessment, and preparedness planning in guiding effective and evidence-informed pandemic response.

David Price

Dr David Price is a biostatistician and stochastic modeller with a keen interest in infectious diseases. Since March 2020, he has been part of a team providing situational assessment and model-based evidence to support policy decisions in Australia and neighbouring countries.

Please contact healthprogramme@turing.ac.uk should you have any questions.