ECDC: On Air

On this episode, we speak with Pasi Penttinen, ECDC expert on coronavirus and influenza. Pasi discusses the reasons why there have been hardly any cases of flu recently, what to expect from the upcoming flu season, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic is really ‘just like a bad flu season’.

“In the worst years, we have more than 200,000 people dying in Europe as a result of influenza. Is this really something we should accept as a society?”

Please visit the dedicated ECDC pages for the flu here.
You can find additional information via Flu News Europe.

This week we once again sat down with Director Dr Andrea Ammon to discuss ECDC’s appearance at the European Health Forum Gastein, and in particular ECDC’s session on community engagement for health emergencies.

Excerpts from the session are included in this episode; information on the speakers can be found here.

ECDC’s work on community engagement can be found here.

More information on the European Health Forum Gastein is available here.

In this episode, we sit down with Tarik Derrough - Expert in vaccine-preventable diseases - to talk about ECDC's role in coordinating disease and laboratory networks. These networks bring together experts to collaborate on various topics. We focus one type of network in particular - National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups or NITAGs - which provide technical resources, supply guidance, and make recommendations to national policymakers. 

"People are now able to work together, to learn from one another, and that can only serve a better decision making process."

For more information on the disease and laboratory networks in Europe, please visit the page on partnerships and networks on ecdc.europa.eu.

September 7th is World Field Epidemiology Day so we sat down with Adam Roth, Head of Fellowship Programmes at ECDC to talk about what field epidemiology is, and about the fellowship pathways, EPIET and EUPHEM, that ECDC offers.

"This is intervention epidemiology, it should make a difference."

More information on TEPHINET is available here.

In this episode, we speak with John Kinsman, who is an expert in behavioural change at ECDC. John talks about vaccine hesitancy, the spread of health misinformation and what public health institutions can do to counter misinformation. For more information on vaccines, please visit the European Vaccine Information Portal. 

“Vaccine hesitancy isn’t always the result of misinformation, there are also a lot of other explanations.”

On this episode, we discuss the importance of vaccines, a little bit about their history, the role ECDC plays when it comes to vaccines monitoring and scheduling in Europe and how vaccines help fight not only COVID-19, but also other diseases with Dr Piotr Kramarz - Deputy Chief Scientist at ECDC.

"Vaccination is like a self-defense class for our bodies."

For more information on vaccine schedules in Europe, please visit vaccine-schedule.ecdc.europa.eu

For this episode, we look into how well prepared can we be for public health threats with Dr Agoritsa Baka - public health preparedness expert at ECDC. 

"You need to be able to talk and engage with your community"

For the second episode, we look at epidemiological signals with Dr Thomas Mollet - group lead for the ECDC Epidemic Intelligence team, and how important these signals can be in detecting outbreaks. 

"We are basically hunters of information.”

To begin this audio series, we chat with the ECDC Director, Dr Andrea Ammon on ECDC's past, present and future and what the current pandemic can bring into the European overview of infectious diseases. 

"Like building an aeroplane while you're flying."