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Public stigma toward prolonged grief and COVID-19 bereavement: A vignette-based experimentWe investigated the effects of cause of death and the presence of prolonged grief disorder on eliciting public stigma toward the bereaved.
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Mapping breastfeeding and COVID-19 related content and engagement on Facebook: Results from an online social listening studyThe COVID-19 pandemic has seen evidence and advice evolve quickly. Since the start of the pandemic there has been confusion and concern about breastfeeding and COVID-19, and advice for this group has at times been contradictory. The volume of information on social media has exacerbated this. This study aimed to understand breastfeeding-related COVID-19 information sharing on social media during the global and Australian vaccine roll-out.
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Modeling COVID-19 disease processes by remote elicitation of causal Bayesian networks from medical expertsCOVID-19 is a new multi-organ disease causing considerable worldwide morbidity and mortality. While many recognized pathophysiological mechanisms are involved, their exact causal relationships remain opaque. Better understanding is needed for predicting their progression, targeting therapeutic approaches, and improving patient outcomes. While many mathematical causal models describe COVID-19 epidemiology, none have described its pathophysiology.
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Collecting behavioural data across countries during pandemics: Development of the COVID-19 Risk Assessment ToolTools that can be used to collect behavioural data during pandemics are needed to inform policy and practice. The objective of this project was to develop the Your COVID-19 Risk tool in response to the global spread of COVID-19, aiming to promote health behaviour change. We developed an online resource based on key behavioural evidence-based risk factors related to contracting and spreading COVID-19. This tool allows for assessing risk and provides instant support to protect individuals from infection.
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Airborne personal protective equipment availability and preparedness in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units: A point prevalence surveyPersonal protective equipment is essential to protect healthcare workers when exposed to aerosol-generating procedures in patients with airborne respiratory pathogens.
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The relationship between administratively recorded ethnicity and outcomes for people admitted to Australian intensive care units with COVID-19The relationship between ethnicity and mortality of patients critically ill with COVID-19 in Australia has not been described. Defining those communities at the highest risk of severe COVID-19 may assist with formulating effective public health policy and may improve the equitable delivery of health care in Australia.

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Applying causal inference and Bayesian statistics to understanding vaccine safety signals using a simulation studyCommunity perception of vaccine safety influences vaccine uptake. Our objective was to assess current vaccine safety monitoring by examining factors that may influence the availability of post-vaccination survey data, and thereby the specificity and sensitivity of existing signal detection methods.
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Erratum: Attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of Western Australians towards vaccine safety surveillance systems following COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative descriptive study (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (2024) 48(1), (S132602002Concerns regarding adverse events following immunisation are a barrier to vaccine uptake. Health professionals use vaccine safety surveillance systems (VSSS) to monitor vaccines and inform the public of safety data. With little known about public attitudes, perceptions, and experiences with VSSS, we examined them in the context of COVID-19 vaccinations in Western Australia.
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Short-Term Active Safety Surveillance of the Spikevax and Nuvaxovid Priming Doses in AustraliaAustralia commenced administration of the Spikevax (Moderna mRNA-1273) COVID-19 vaccine in August 2021 and Nuvaxovid (Novavax NVX-CoV2373) in January 2022. This study describes the short-term safety profile of priming doses of the Spikevax and Nuvaxovid vaccines given between September 2021 and September 2023.