Synopsis

Never in the field of health was so much learned by so many in so few months.  This, the opening Grand Round for 2021 will recap the lessons from last year, take stock of where we are in February 2021, describe the complex situation with vaccines, and look to what the year might hold for the pandemic and children in Australia and countries around the world.  Topics will include: Why is COVID-19 less severe in children?  What is the role of schools in transmission and what is the impact of new variants?  Vaccines: who, when and how? The indirect effects of Covid: poverty and malnutrition, measles, loss of education, and child marriage.

Speakers

Professor Nigel Curtis is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and clinician scientist. He is the leader of the Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Melbourne and Head of Infectious Diseases at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. He is the Chief Principal Investigator of The BRACE Trial, a randomised controlled trial of BCG vaccination to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in healthcare workers that is recruiting over 10,000 participants in three continents.

Professor Fiona Russell is a paediatrician and infectious diseases epidemiologist.  She is Director of the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne; and Group Leader for the Asia-Pacific Health research group, MCRI. Her clinical and public health research provides evidence on vaccines to improve child health outcomes in low-income countries. Fiona led the review of COVID-19 in Victorian schools and was a panel member on the WHO Global Science Dialogue on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Children. She is a member of the DFAT and WHO advisory groups for COVID-19 vaccines for the Asia-Pacific.

Professor Kim Mulholland is a global health legend: clinical scientist, epidemiologist and vaccine researcher.  He holds appointments at MCRI where he runs the pneumococcal microbiology and immunology laboratories, along with major field research programs in Vietnam, Fiji and Mongolia.  He has researched pneumonia and pathogens for nearly 40 years, and covered every aspect.  He also leads HPV, RSV and typhoid research programs.  He has been involved in the oversight of many vaccine trials, serving on steering committees or DSMBs for a range of vaccines including Hib, Pneumococcal, Dengue, RSV and Covid-19 vaccines.