Throughout history, the world has experienced pandemics due to the plague, smallpox, cholera and influenza, but never one sparked by a coronavirus.

“Over the past century, there have been five pandemics, four of which were due to influenza, and each had differing degrees of severity and societal impact,” Kate Pennington explains.

Kate is an epidemiologist and Sir Roland Wilson scholar from the Department of Health and Aged Care. She supported the government’s responses to the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) and COVID-19 pandemics.

Her PhD research at The Australian National University examines how past pandemic assumptions shaped decisions for the public health response to COVID-19 and how these insights can apply to future pandemics.

“Before COVID-19, pandemic planning centred on influenza. Public health measures were geared toward mitigation, with little expectation that control or elimination was feasible."

“A coronavirus had never before led to a pandemic, which meant responses had to be rapidly re-orientated to COVID-19’s characteristics.”

Through all stages of a pandemic, evidence is crucial to the decisions you make, Kate explains.

“Understanding patterns of disease spread, severity and other characteristics of the virus are fundamental to informing effective public health responses.”

As part of her research, Kate is looking to make comparisons between influenza pandemic planning assumptions and how this shaped decisions for the COVID-19 response.

Kate’s research could help Australia better prepare for and respond to future pandemics. She also sees potential for it to highlight the effectiveness of Australia’s measures in averting the pandemic’s severity compared to the impacts seen in many other countries.

The Sir Roland Wilson Scholarship is a three-year, full pay scholarship for PhD research at ANU for high performing EL1 and EL2 APS employees.

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Image: Kelly Chen Photography