Good news

Meru Sheel finished a 4-month secondment with WHO Regional Office of the Western Pacific. Since January, Meru Sheel is working part time on global COVID19 vaccine roll out with Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins Affiliate NGO.

Keynote and invited presentations

Meru Sheel presented at the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre Clinical Vaccinology Update on ‘Measles: blind spot for global health security?’ in December 2020.  

Outreach and engagement

Meru Sheel presented to the Filipino Australian Health Professionals Inc (FAHPI) on COVID19 and One Health Approaches.

Media releases/interest

Meru Sheel, Charlee Law and Cyra Patel authored an article in The Conversation, titled ‘Will the COVID vaccine make me test positive for the coronavirus? 5 questions about vaccines and COVID testing answered’ in March 2021. Sheel and Law authored another article titled ‘Tier 1, tier 2, tier 3? Victoria’s COVID exposure sites explained.‘ in February 2021.

Other media for Sheel includes an article for Cosmos Magazine titled ‘Equitable vaccine access for all’ in March 2021, ongoing media for ABC News and SBS and a feature in the Saari Collective International Women’s Day series (found here: https://saaricollective.com.au/community/blog/international-womens-day-profile-series-meru-sheel-and-daizy-maan/).

Student news

Kimberly Dunbar completed her Honours with First Class.

Papers accepted/published:

1. Ford L, Glass K, Williamson DA, Sintchenko V, Robson JMB, Stafford R, Kirk MD. (2021) Cost of whole genome sequencing for non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica in Australia. PLOS One (in press, accepted March 2021).
2. Lau CL, Sheel M, Gass K, Fuimaono S, David MC, Won KY, Sheridan S, Graves PM. (2020) Potential strategies for strengthening surveillance of lymphatic filariasis in American Samoa after mass drug administration: Reducing 'number needed to test' by targeting older age groups, hotspots, and household members of infected persons. PLOS NTDs.
3. Lidbury BA. (2021) Ross River Virus Immune Evasion Strategies and the Relevance to Post-viral Fatigue, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Onset. Frontiers in Medicine. 8: 298. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.662513  
4. Seale H, Heywood AE, Leask J, Sheel M, Durrheim DN, Bolsewicz K, Kaur R. (2021) Examining Australian public perceptions and behaviors towards a future COVID-19 vaccine. BMC Infectious Diseases.
5. Stone JC, Glass K, Clark J, Ritskes-Hoitinga M, Munn Z, Tugwell P, Doi SAR. (2021) The MethodologicAl STandards for Epidemiological Research (MASTER) scale demonstrated a unified framework for bias assessment. J. Clin Epidemiol. 134:52-64.
6. Vassallo A, Womersley K, Norton R, Sheel M. (2021) Pregnant women's appetite for risk. Lancet Global health.

Progress on research projects

The team led by Katie Glass have submitted their first deliverable for the project “The annual cost of foodborne illness in Australia” for Food Standards Australia New Zealand.