CEDA Adelaide coronavirus update livestreaming Wednesday March 18, virologist urges business to act swiftly

While we still have much to learn about coronavirus, we know enough to slow the rate of infection and reduce the impact, an SA virologist says. WATCH A REPLAY OF THE LIVESTREAM.

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While we still have much to learn about coronavirus, we know enough to slow the rate of infection and reduce the impact on both the health system and the economy, an Adelaide virologist says.

This morning at 10am, deputy director of the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Infectious Disease and head of the Viral Pathogenesis Research Laboratory, Associate Professor Michael Beard, will address the Committee for Economic Development of Australia update on coronavirus.

He will urge business leaders to act swiftly, introduce social distancing measures, enforce hygiene and support working from home.

“This virus is here now and it will start to escalate, it will start to infect a lot more people, exactly what's happened in other countries,” he said.

WATCH THE LIVESTREAM BELOW

“If we can slow the infections then we can get on top of it, we can treat the sick and hopefully get things under control.”

At this stage there is no vaccine and no treatment for the disease, COVID-19. There are vaccine candidates at various stages of development and some existing antiviral drugs and therapies that may be repurposed but the research takes time and there are no guarantees.

“If you're thinking that a vaccine is going to save you in the next six months, I think that's a tall ask,” A/Prof Beard said.

“A vaccine is at least a year to 18 months away. It's not that ‘difficult’ to generate a vaccine, but the difficulty is actually in the testing of it, in animal models, in cell culture models, the whole regulatory process. That can be expedited but still takes time.

“The next thing with a vaccine is you have to scale up production in a facility, then implement that, getting it out to people. It’s not a simple process.”

On Thursday, CEDA decided to change the Adelaide public event to an interactive livestream presentation and refund tickets for those who had originally booked to attend in person.

Experts from across government, industry and academia will discuss how South Australia will deal with the impact of COVID-19. Other speakers include: Alan Copeland, assistant secretary of the Trade and Investment Economics Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Mark Duffy, chief executive, Department for Innovation and Skills; Karyn Kent, chief executive officer, StudyAdelaide; and Chris Sweet, partner, Finlaysons.

Event times are as follows (SA time)

10am: Opening speech by Premier of South Australia, the Hon. Steven Marshall

10.25am: Speaker presentations

10.45am: Moderated discussion and questions

11.25am: Vote of thanks

11.30am: End of stream

Live stream start times

ACT/NSW/VIC/TAS: 10.30am

SA: 10.00am

NT: 9.00am

WA: 7.30am

QLD: 9.30am