In Episode 1 of our new podcast series, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, a vaccinologist and consultant paediatrician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) & Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Melbourne, talks with Stanley Plotkin, Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania; who is well known internationally for his role in vaccine development.

In this episode they discuss:
•Professor Plotkin’s role in the development of the rubella vaccine, still used throughout the world today
•His role as the Editor in Chief of the ‘Vaccines’ textbook
•His role in the formation of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) and CEPI’s current role in global COVID-19 vaccine development
•What can we learn from the H1N1 pandemic in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine?
•How developing a vaccine against coronaviruses is critical to the future of civilisation as economies are being destroyed by these viruses
•Human challenge models and some of the ethical considerations we need to tackle if these sorts of trials are going to be undertaken to support COVID-19 vaccine development
•Success can only be achieved through global collaboration in the pursuit of a COVID-19 vaccine
•How the practical aspects of distributing a vaccine on this scale have never been faced before and the importance of thinking outside the box!

Resources
•Plotkin’s Vaccines (7th edition) - https://www.elsevier.com/books/T/A/9780323357616
•Vaccine: Extraordinary diseases require extraordinary solutions - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7167540/
•Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation - https://cepi.net