Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) COVID-19 Working Group

Role

The working group will provide advice to the Government on the effective and equitable use of COVID-19 vaccines available in Australia, as directed by the Department of Health.

Background

Delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine(s) is a critical and urgent need in the global and Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian Government Department of Health COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce has identified Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) as the appropriate committee to provide the Minister for Health with evidence-based advice on immunisation policies, programs and priorities.

Terms of reference

Provide technical advice to the Minister for Health on the immunisation program for COVID-19 vaccines as they become available in Australia.
Identify and prioritise gaps in the immunisation landscape to improve impact, confidence and equity with the use of COVID-19 vaccines.
Advise on the content of clinical and other communication materials, including updating the Australian Immunisation Handbook for any COVID-19 vaccines.
Consult with the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) and the Advisory Committee on Vaccines (ACV) and other national committees on matters relating to the implementation of immunisation policies, procedures and vaccine safety related to COVID-19 vaccines.

ATAGI COVID-19 Working Group Members

The working group members are listed as at March 2021.

Additional experts are invited as required in a temporary capacity.

The group is led by an executive team and has 3 subgroups:

Vaccine utilisation and prioritisation
Vaccine distribution and program implementation
Vaccine safety, evaluation, monitoring and confidence.

ATAGI COVID-19 Executive Team
Name	Area of Expertise	Position
A/Prof Christopher Blyth (Co-chair)	Infectious Diseases, Clinical Microbiology, Epidemiology	Paediatrician Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist, University of Western Australia, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital and PathWest Laboratory
Prof Allen Cheng (Co-chair)	Epidemiology, Public Health, Infectious Diseases	Infectious Disease Physician and Director, Infection Prevention Healthcare Epidemiology Unit, Alfred Health Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Prof Katie Flanagan (Subgroup 1 Lead)	Vaccine immunology, clinical trials and vaccines, clinical infectious diseases	Head of Infectious Diseases, Launceston General Hospital Clinical Professor, University of Tasmania Adjunct Professor, RMIT Adjunct Associate Professor, Monash University
Dr Robyn Gibbs (Subgroup 2 Lead)	National Immunisation Committee (NIC)	Manager, Immunisation Program, Department of Health, Western Australia
A/Prof Nigel Crawford (Subgroup 3 Lead)	Vaccine Safety, Special Risk Groups	Director, Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community (SAEFVIC), Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Medical Head, Immunisation Services, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Prof Kristine Macartney	National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), Vaccinologist, infectious diseases and paediatrics	Director, NCIRS Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist, Children’s Hospital Westmead
Ms Lisa Schofield	Department of Health Representative	Head, COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy Taskforce Division, Department of Health
Ms Hope Peisley	Department of Health Representative	Lead, Vaccine Policy Branch, Department of Health

Subgroup 1 – Vaccine utilisation and prioritisation
Name	Area of expertise	Position
Prof Katie Flanagan (Lead)	Vaccine immunology, clinical trials and vaccines, clinical infectious diseases	Head of Infectious Diseases, Launceston General Hospital; Clinical Professor, University of Tasmania; Adjunct Professor, RMIT; Adjunct Associate Professor, Monash University
A/Prof Christopher Blyth (Co-chair)	Infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, epidemiology	Paediatrician Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist, University of Western Australia, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital and PathWest Laboratory
Dr Penny Burns	Primary Care representative	General Practitioner, Conjoint Senior Lecturer, Western Sydney University, Doctoral candidate Australian National University
Prof Angus Dawson	Bioethics	Professor of Bioethics and Director of Sydney Health Ethics, School of Public Health, The University of Sydney
Prof David Durrheim	Public Health, vaccinology, infectious diseases	Director Health Protection – Hunter New England Health and Professor of Public Health Medicine, University of Newcastle
Prof Kirsten Howard	Health economics	Professor of Health Economics, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
A/Prof Vanessa Johnston	Public Health Physician, Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) representative	Deputy Chief Health Officer, ACT Health; Associate Professor, ANU Medical School
Dr Richard Kidd	General Practice	General Practitioner, Chair Australian Medical Association Council of General Practice, Chair Health Sector Group Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council Department of Home Affairs, Co-Chair Aged Care Advisory Group Australian Digital Health Agency, Clinical Lead Brisbane North Primary Health Network, member various Department of Health / Department of Veterans' Affairs / Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care committees
A/Prof Bette Liu	Epidemiology, public health	Associate Professor, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
Prof Kristine Macartney	National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), vaccinology, infectious diseases and paediatrics	Director, NCIRS; Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist, Children’s Hospital Westmead
Prof Jodie McVernon	Epidemiology, modelling, public health	Director of Doherty Epidemiology, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne
Prof Tom Snelling	Paediatrics and special risk groups, epidemiology	Head, Health and Clinical Analytics, School of Public Health, University of Sydney
Prof Kanta Subbarao	Virology, paediatric infectious diseases	Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne
Prof James Ward	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative; Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) representative	Director, UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health; Professor, School of Public Health, University of Queensland
A/Prof James Wood	Modelling, epidemiology, public health	Associate Professor in Mathematical Epidemiology, School of Population Health UNSW Sydney

Subgroup 2 – Vaccine distribution and program implementation
Name	Area of expertise	Position
Dr Robyn Gibbs (Lead)	National Immunisation Committee (NIC)	Manager, Immunisation Program, Department of Health, Western Australia
Ms Karen Bellamy	Public health nurse, vaccination procedures	Immunisation/VPD Surveillance Nurse, Monash Children’s Hospital
Mr Scott Brown	Program implementation	A/Manager Immunisation Program, Communicable Diseases Branch Prevention Division, Queensland Health
Dr Katherine Gibney	Infectious diseases physician, epidemiology	Infectious Diseases Physician, Royal Melbourne Hospital; Senior Research Fellow, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
A/Prof Michelle Giles	Infectious diseases physician	Infectious Diseases Physician (Alfred Health, Monash Health, Royal Women’s Hospital, Western Health); Adult Immunisation Physician (Monash Health, Sunshine Hospital)
Ms Madeline Hall	Public health nurse, vaccination procedures	Nurse Practitioner, Queensland Health
Dr Chris Moy	General Practice	Australian Medical Association Vice President
Prof Lena Sanci	Primary care representative	Head/Professor; Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School; Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
Dr Nicholas Silberstein	General practitioner	General Practitioner, Victoria
Dr Annaliese van Diemen	Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) representative	Deputy Chief Health Officer (Communicable Disease) Regulation, Health Protection & Emergency Management, Department of Health & Human Services

Subgroup 3 – Vaccine safety, evaluation, monitoring and confidence
Name	Area of expertise	Position
A/Prof Nigel Crawford (Lead)	Vaccine safety, special risk groups	Director, Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community (SAEFVIC), Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Medical Head, Immunisation Services, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Dr Katie Attwell	Vaccination social science and public policy	Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia
Prof Allen Cheng (Co-Chair)	Epidemiology, public health, infectious diseases	Infectious Disease Physician and Director, Infection Prevention Healthcare Epidemiology Unit, Alfred Health; Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Ms Kristy Cooper	Primary Health Care Practice, Bioethics and Cultural Safety in Healthcare, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthcare	Indigenous Academic Fellow, School of Nursing University of Tasmania; Family Nurse Practitioner, Authorised Immunisation Provider
A/Prof Margie Danchin	Vaccination social and behavioural science (risk communication, community engagement) and vaccine safety	Group Leader, Vaccine Uptake, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and The University of Melbourne; Paediatrician, Royal Children's Hospital Chair, Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation (COSSI)
Prof Paul Effler	Safety and evaluation	Senior Medical Advisor, Communicable Disease Control Directorate, Department of Health, Western Australia; Clinical Professor/University of Western Australia
Prof Cheryl Jones	Paediatrics, infectious diseases	Head of School and Dean, Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Prof John Kaldor	Communicable Diseases Network Australia representative; epidemiology and disease prevention	Professor of Epidemiology and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, UNSW Sydney
Adj Prof Tony Korman	Infectious diseases, microbiology	Director, Monash Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Monash Health
Dr Alan Leeb	Primary care representative	General Practitioner, Illawarra Medical Centre; SmartVax Safety Monitoring; AusVaxSafety
Ms Debra Petrys	Consumer representative	Consumers Health Forum
Ms Diane Walsh	Consumer representative	Consumers Health Forum
Therapeutic Goods Administration representative	Vaccine pharmacovigilance	Senior Medical Officer, Signal Investigation Unit, Pharmacovigilance and Special Access Branch, Therapeutic Goods Administration

Staff from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) provide technical support to the ATAGI COVID-19 Working Group and its Subgroups, including: Alexis Pillsbury, Bianca Bullivant, Catherine King, Catherine Tran, Clayton Chiu, Cyra Patel, Harunor Rashid, Helen Quinn, Jean Li-Kim-Moy, Ketaki Sharma, Lauren Dalton, Lucy Armstrong, Maryke Steffens, Sanjay Jayasinghe, Ye Jin (Zoe) Joo and Zhicheng Wang.

Publications

Related committees or groups

This group reports to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).

Contact

ATAGI COVID-19 Working Group contact

Contact the Advisory Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) COVID-19 Working Group.

ATAGI.COVID19WG [at] health.gov.au

View contact

Last updated:

10 March 2021

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