I need to do a quick shout out to the folks in Melbourne laboratories who are working hard to save a lot of lives.

A thread. /1 https://twitter.com/ewster/status/1248687920828936192

You may not be aware of this, but Melbourne is an international hub for medical research. We literally have some of the most talented people in the world working in this city. Everything from molecular to clinical studies, and very much including virology.

/2

It turns out we have some exceptional research happening here, the result of decades of commitment by our universities, governments and private enterprise. Melbourne very much hits above our weight.

/3

The Doherty Institute is the epicentre of our COVID response in Australia. It's a unique facility with unique capabilities. These are the astronauts of viral research. They lead the world.

/4

I happen to have worked with a few of these researchers. I know them well enough to totally take for granted what they do. We are soooo lucky to have this level of talent in our backyard.

/5

As a side note, Peter Doherty is not only a Nobel Laureate, but an enthusiastic photographer as well. He doesn't stop learning. He's also been a marvellous advocate for science in Australia - @ProfPCDoherty

/6

It's more than likely that one reason our premier @DanielAndrewsMP took definitive action on social distancing is because he had the best people in the world to guide him.

/7

We also have in Melbourne some exceptional diagnostic laboratories. VIDRL is where I imagine a lot of the hard yakka is being done on testing. Getting the diagnostics right, and accurate, is critical to stoping this epidemic. Without reliable testing we have a nightmare.

/8

Take a moment to imagine what it's like to go to work each day and process samples that may be positive for a lethal strain of Coronavirus. It's pretty serious stuff.

/9

There's a lot of talk about "are we testing enough" and I have no doubt every hospital and politician would love for Australia to expand the scale of tests. But it's not that simple to scale up, not without compromising accuracy and safety.

/10

Our scientific teams behind the front line are an amazing asset. We should be very grateful we have them. Govts will come and go, but these scientists have been at this there entire lives and are giving everything they have in response.

We're in good hands.

/11

Let me add that many of these people have faced incredible challenges over their careers, and funding for medical research has been under dire pressure in Australia for many decades.

Melbourne is lucky to be home to a handful of internationally supported initiatives.

/12

Melbourne will be central to projects across the globe to develop a vaccine. It's a complex business but this article in The Guardian does a great job of laying out the road ahead

/13 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/inside-the-race-to-develop-a-coronavirus-vaccine-covid-19

Another excellent resource on the basics of what Covid-19 is and what we currently understand about its epidemiology can be found at @SMC_London.

/14

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-questions-about-covid-19-and-viral-load/

There's a lot of useful information coming through daily via @SMC_London and it's a good resource to reference against potential click-bait in the media. For example, a controversial study on cats and COVID-19 getting some expert opinions below.

/15

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-a-study-looking-at-susceptibility-of-pets-to-the-covid-19-virus-sars-cov-2/

So to finish up. I don't trust our politicians anymore than you do, but I do trust the science. We have some remarkable talent in Australia and they are a big reason that our fatalities are lower than feared.

Trust the science. Trust the Doctors. Stay the fk home.

/END