Fast-tracked new COVID-19 projects meet areas of urgent need
Description
APPRISE has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with fast-tracking of 16 new projects designed to fill critical areas of research need across a range of disciplines. APPRISE has also adapted and activated existing infectious disease platforms and studies to respond to COVID-19.
Some of the new projects are co-funded with CREID, a related infectious disease research centre. The projects are designed to shed light on urgent research questions for COVID-19 (see below) and the virus that causes it – SARS-CoV-2, formerly known as 2019-nCoV.
Download the list of new COVID-19 projects.
Public health and diagnostics research questions
- Can recent exposure to SARS-CoV-2 be detected in blood?
- Which nucleic acid diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 is best?
- How at-risk are healthcare workers when using personal protective equipment and what is the prevalence of asymptomatic infection and transmission?
Clinical research questions
- How can primary care surveillance better inform understanding of the impact and management of COVID-19
- What immune responses are stimulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection and how long does the virus shed?
- Can antiretroviral treatment help people with less severe COVID-19 disease?
- What are the optimal communication strategies for different occupational groups and members of the public to maintain trust and enable appropriate and proportionate infection prevention and control responses?
- Which treatment options are best for managing severe COVID-19?
SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 laboratory research questions
- What, if any, viral diversity accumulates during SARS-CoV-2 infection
- How does SARS-CoV-2 adapt in an infected person?
- Are there indicators to predict COVID-19 progression to either mild or severe disease?
Ethics, social and community research questions
- How can a First Nations-informed perspective of COVID-19 inform better decisions around risk mitigation?
- How can APPRISE activities be best communicated to diverse groups?
- How does Australia’s quarantining of its citizens and residents during the COVID-19 outbreak cohere with its own policy positions on health security and health security as a public good?
- What are the impacts of evacuation, quarantine and other social distancing measures?
- What kinds of (dis)information has spread on English and Mandarin language online outlets re: COVID-19, and are there differences? Is it possible to ‘inoculate’ people against bad information?