May report for Epidemiology for Policy and Practice

1 May 2020

New grants/funding

Ray Lovett and the Mayi Kuwayu team received the Ian Potter Foundation Grant for the Mayi Kuwayu Study of 1.18 million 2020-2025 for community and policy translation activities.

Outreach and engagement
Miranda Harris, Stephanie Davis, Raglan Maddox, and Polly Wallace have been seconded by the Department of Health/ACT Health in response to COVID-19

ATSIHIP providing coordination of Rapid Reviews for COVID 19 response in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care settings in conjunction with NACCHO, Lowitja Institute and RACGP.

Jason Agostino and Katie Thurber have been establishing a NACCHO/RACGP/Lowitja guide to prevention of COVID-19 (with support of RSPH Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health team)

Jason Agostino, Deb Wong and Andrea Timothy met with Mr Karl Briscoe, the CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers Association (NATSIHWA) to discuss development of online educational resources for their members on CVD risk communication.

Jason Agostino has been appointed to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Advisory Group. They develop a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific additions to this SoNG and identify/address emerging issues.

Jason Agostino has been appointed on to the GP Peak Body COVID-19 response group. Key role is providing input into policy for Primary Care (e.g. Universal Telehealth)

Jason Agostino has been working on clinical steering committee for Cochrane Living Evidence Consortium’s COVID-19 living guidelines. Further to this, he has been working on the expert advisory committee for Cochrane’s ‘Mild COVID-19’ management group.

Alyson Wright, Bobby Maher, Tamara Riley, Katie Thurber, Charlee Law have been establishing training modules for Aboriginal Health Workers on COVID-19 e.g. on contact tracing and advice on isolation/quarantine (with support of RSPH Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health team and the MAE team), these modules will be available in the coming weeks..

Media releases/interest

On 19 March 2020 Jason Agostino featured in the Canberra Times https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6688145/coronavirus-will-devastate-aboriginal-communities-if-we-dont-act-now/ (Originally published in Conversation)

On 25 March 2020 Jason Agostino interviewed by The Guardian Australia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/plea-for-tents-or-anything-to-help-with-self-isolation-in-overcrowded-indigenous-communities

On 27 March 2020 Jason Agostino interviewed on ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-27/coronavirus-border-restrictions-causes-doctor-shortage/12097548

On 27 March Jason Agostino featured on Bloomberg News https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-26/australia-s-most-isolated-communities-lock-down-to-beat-virus
On the 2 April 2020 Kamalini Lokuge in conversation with VC Brian Schmidt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65AccTrfF4I&feature=youtu.be

On 8 April 2020 Kamalini Lokuge was interviewed on ABC 7:30 report with Norman Swan looking at the government's coronavirus modelling https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/norman-swan-looks-at-the-governments-coronavirus/12134996
 

On 13 April 2020 Kamalini Lokuge was interviewed on ABC news health report with Norman Swan ‘Can we eliminate COVID-19, what's the endgame and a reality check on a vaccine’ https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/coronavirus-modelling-vaccine-endgame/12144250

Kamalini Lokuge featured in ANU Media regarding COVID-19

https://health.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/we-know-what-stopped-ebola-and-we-know-what-can-stop-covid-19

New staff

Dr Bronwen Phillip – Mayi Kuwayu Research Fellow responsible for data analysis and evidence production.

Ms Nadine Hunt – Senior community researcher North Queensland. Responsible for data collection from that region and coordinator of a community Census project.

Student news

Tamara Riley commences her PhD on One Health in Indigenous communities on July 1

Papers accepted/published:

  1. Hudson, M., Garrison, N.A., Sterling, R. et al. Rights, interests and expectations: Indigenous perspectives on unrestricted access to genomic data. Nat Rev Genet (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0228-xNew pub
     
  2. Agostino J, Sturgiss L, Thurber K, Gurran N. For pandemic control, housing is the best medicine. Croakey. 3 April 2020. https://croakey.org/for-pandemic-control-housing-is-the-best-medicine/
     
  3. Wright, Thurber, Yap, Irwin, Banks, Walker, Sanders, Lovett 2020. Who responds? An examination of postal response rates to a national survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 2017-2018 accepted 6.4.2020 BMC Medical Research Methodologies