Falling childhood vaccination rates: current context and future strategies

Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist. She is a medical graduate of the University of NSW and has over 20 years of experience in vaccinology.

She has experience working in the US at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was a founding member of the US Vaccine Education Center. Her Doctorate of Medicine was on rotavirus infection, in particular the mucosal immune response to novel vaccine candidates. She is interested in all aspects of vaccine preventable disease research, particularly policy development, vaccine safety and prevention of viral diseases. She is the Senior Editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Kristine is a Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and has a conjoint academic appointment as Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney.

Nicholas Wood is a staff specialist general paediatrician and Professor in Clinical Vaccinology at the University of Sydney. Nick holds an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. He leads the NSW Immunisation Specialist Service and coordinates the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He is a senior investigator on the Primary Health Network Immunisation Support Program.

Frank Beard is a public health physician who heads the surveillance, coverage, evaluation and social science teams at NCIRS and has a conjoint academic appointment as Associate Professor in the University of Sydney School of Public Health. He has a particular interest and extensive experience in vaccine coverage analysis and reporting.

Kasia Bolsewicz is a Research Fellow in the NCIRS Social Sciences team. She brings doctoral-level qualifications and work experience in qualitative research methods and public health and social and behavioural sciences – as well as a cross-cultural background in chronic illness management research (cancer, HIV, dementia), public health policy and evaluation – to her work. Kasia has worked with four local health districts in New South Wales using the World Health Organization’s Tailoring Immunization Programmes approach to identify areas of low childhood vaccine coverage and gain a greater understanding of factors that influence childhood immunisation. 

Julie Leask AO is professor and social scientist in the University of Sydney School of Public Health, where she co-leads the Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation research group. Her research focuses on vaccine uptake, programs and policies. She also teaches and researches in risk communication. She is a member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and a visiting fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. Her previous roles include Chair, World Health Organization (WHO) Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination working group (2018–2022); member, WHO Immunization and Vaccines-related Implementation Research Advisory Committee (2019–2023); and member, WHO South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (2020–2023). She has won several awards, including the Australian Financial Review 100 Woman of Influence in 2019 and the Rosemary Bryant Award from the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association in 2023. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2024 ‘for distinguished service to health and medical research, to policy advice and to enhancing community understanding of immunisation’.

Anna Peatt leads the division responsible for the National Immunisation Program and the National COVID-19 Vaccine Program. These programs work to prevent disease and death through access to vaccines and the provision of better supports to the delivery of outcomes across the Department, as teams share their expertise, knowledge and capacity. Anna’s previous roles have included First Assistant Secretary, National COVID-19 Vaccine Division and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the National Blood Authority. She previously worked at the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, as the Chief Officer, Medicines and Poisons Regulation. Anna has more than 20 years’ experience in various roles throughout the Australian Government working in various departments, mainly in high-level positions. Her knowledge is enhanced by a Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry), which she attained at Monash University.

Karen Booth is a Registered Nurse who has been working as a primary healthcare nurse and manager in general practice for 25 years. She has held multiple ministerial appointments to federal government health policy groups, including the Primary Health Care Advisory Group, Health Care Homes, the Medicare Benefits Schedule review for Primary Care, Allied Health and Nurse Practitioners, the Nurse Practitioner 10 Year Plan Steering Committee, the National Nursing Workforce Plan, the National Rural and Remote Nurse Generalist Framework and the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.

Margie Danchin is a paediatrician and a vaccinologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). As leader of the Vaccine Uptake and Clinical Trials group at MCRI, her research focuses on vaccine effectiveness, confidence and uptake – particularly among priority populations and in low-resource settings – and effective risk communication. In Australia, she is a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Chair of the Social Science Advisory Board, and a member of the NCIRS Scientific Advisory Committee. Margie is Deputy Chair of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA), sits on the steering committee for Melbourne Children’s Global Health and is Associate Dean International at the University of Melbourne.

Naomi Nelson is a proud Njaki-Njaki woman from the Noongar nation who has connections to Ballardong and Wadjak countries. She has worked in health for six years and for the past four years has been working as the Aboriginal Health Team Coordinator at the Boorloo (Perth) Public Health Unit. The team has portfolios in immunisation and notifiable communicable diseases.