Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation
Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation
Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation
Last week the SABII team left our usual meeting room behind and headed out for an end-of-year lunch. It was a wonderful way to end a busy year. The SABII group would like to wish everyone all the very best for the festive season and a healthy, happy and fulfilling 2024.
We are very excited to announce that Dr Kerrie Wiley, one of SABII’s co-leaders, has been an awarded a Sydney Horizon Fellowship!!! A massive congratulations to you, Kerrie. Brilliant achievement! What a great way to end the year: Recognition of the very important work that you do, and funding to better support it.
The inaugural round of the Sydney Horizon Fellowship Scheme was highly competitive. We had 1462 applications received from 66 countries, with outstanding candidates applying to every faculty/university school.
A cornerstone of the University’s Sydney in 2032 Strategy, the Fellowships are designed to empower the world’s best and brightest emerging academics to undertake innovative research that contributes to the common good, tackling our greatest challenges of climate change, health and sustainability.
Julie recently recorded this talk that she prepared for an update with the NSW Ministry of Health on the question of whether the pandemic has increased child vaccination hesitancy.
Recently our SABII co-leads, Professor Julie Leask and Dr Kerrie Wiley, took part in a series of researcher videos with Sydney ID – the Sydney Infectious Disease Institute.
This is Julie’s video about vaccine uptake research:
This is Kerrie’s video about her research into how people think and feel about vaccinating humans and animals:
Take a look at the other researcher videos here to find out about the amazing work Sydney ID researchers are doing.
A large chunk of the SABII team were away over the last fortnight to attend conferences.
Julie headed to Bangkok to present at VARN2023 – the Vaccine Acceptance Research Network’s 2023 conference. Julie joined a plenary panel discussion titled “Challenges of Online & Offline Circulating Misinformation Relating to Zero-Dose Children and Vaccine Introduction“. The other panellists were Adidja Amani, from the WHO Regional Office for Africa; Ana Bottallo, journalist from Brazil; Farah Naz Qamar, Associate Professor from Pakistan; and Joe Smyser, CEO of The Public Good Projects.
Last week was the annual CDIC 2023 (Communicable Diseases and Immunisation Conference) in Perth, Western Australia.
Last week, instead of our usual team meeting, the SABII crew were all busy typing away on our laptops. We organised a half-day writing retreat (a.k.a. ‘Shut Up and Write’ morning) where we all worked on a current writing project without interruption. We smashed out several pomodoros and by all accounts, we were very productive. Go team! We’ve got another writing session lined up for next month.
When we’re not working hard, you can often find us sharing a meal or coffee on campus. Here we are a couple of weeks ago, celebrating Kerrie’s ‘Maker and Shaper’ award. Congratulations again, Kerrie! Very well deserved.
The SABII team sends a big congratulations to Adeline Tinessia, who graduated last week with a Master of Global Health. Congratulations, Addy! We’re glad to have you on the team.
We would also like to acknowledge Dr Kerrie Wiley who has been awarded a Faculty of Medicine and Health “Makers and Shapers” award for Outstanding Research (individual) category. Key achievements noted in Kerrie’s nomination include:
What a fantastic recognition of all your achievements. Well done, Kerrie!!
SABII team members have been running vaccination workshops with refugee community leaders via the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). The workshops cover COVID-19, influenza, vaccinations, and skills for having vaccination conversations in your community.
Julie visited Seoul to attend the Global Vaccine and Immunization Research Forum. Read Julie’s reflections on the forum here.
Julie Leask was interviewed by Cosmos Magazine about newly released Victorian data about COVID-19 measures in schools. COVID-19 schools data reveal: Unreleased Victorian data and analysis on masks, RATs and cases