After four week of not reporting, here is Victoria. Wasn’t such a big limb…

ATAGI minutes for Oct have been released, stating “ATAGI recommends using the latest COVID-19 vaccine formulation”. This was before the Pfizer JN.1 vax had received TGA approval, but presumably means it is “ATAGI approved” as soon as supply is available (expected “late 2024”)

Philippe has some intel on JN.1 availability. Can anyone concur?

Social media at its best. ppaonline.com.au/wp-content/upl…

Whooping cough activity is still high. Pregnant women and people in close contact with babies should get vaccinated to protect babies from severe disease. Full report: health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/cov… More info: health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/fac…

All those indicators that looked like they were increasing last week are mostly unchanged this week.

Four weeks since my post saying it looked like Covid was about to take off again in NSW. Latest NSW Health report shows little action. A very benign wave compared with this time last year. health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/cov…

Vaccines and "placebo control" Placebo-controlled trials compare a vaccine to an inactive substance (placebo). This helps measure how effective the vaccine is. In the case of vaccines, often, the placebo is not "saline", but rather a previous vaccine or vaccine solution. /1

Covid prevalence in NSW has increased this week, but indicators suggest it is still substantially less than at the same time last year. With Christmas now less than a week away, I’m hopeful this means the peak of this wave will also be much lower than last year.

Will Sydney airport on Boxing Day be …

The Centre for Population released their 2024 population statement just before Christmas. Includes projections of births, deaths and net migration that feed into Govt decision making. population.gov.au/publications/s…

So #covidinquiry commissioned serious research by academics at Oxford Uni into vaccine safety. Concludes “best evidence” suggests jabs saved millions of lives. And any suggestion they caused excess mortality is “low quality and has been in many cases misinterpreted.” A short 🧵

A fantastic data visualisation by casey briggs showing how the decline in national support for the major parties translates into declining support seat by seat, increasing the number of contest involving Independents and minor parties. abc.net.au/news/2025-04-2…

Happy international actuaries day to all my actuarial friends!