“Even though from an individual perspective COVID-19 might not be serious, from a population health perspective, there are a lot of people who have died from it now around the world and its ability to overwhelm health systems because so many people become infected so quickly is extremely serious….Within a month you might have 14-15 flu infections – or 50 000 coronavirus infections.”Dr Victoria Brookes explains the rapid transmission of COVID-19 and why its ability to spread so quickly makes it dangerous to populations – and what strategies we need to look at to prevent it. Dr Brookes is a Senior Lecturer in Population Health and Production at the School of Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. She is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and after spending several years in practice in the UK and Australia, she completed her PhD at The University of Sydney (preparedness for exotic disease incursions for the pig industry in Australia, funded by Australian Pork Limited).Other projects in which she is involved include investigation of rabies outbreaks in Punjab, India, and a global research collaboration to investigate the use of ensemble modelling for FMD outbreak prediction. As well as core epidemiologic methods, Dr Brookes has expertise in risk assessment and disease modelling.Dr Brookes has a particular interest in zoonoses and transboundary disease spread. She has on-the-ground emergency animal disease response experience from the 2001 outbreak of FMD in the UK and the 2007 outbreak of equine influenza in Australia. Her current role involves research into emerging infectious diseases and One Health, as well as teaching in the areas of population medicine and veterinary public health. Episode recorded: 6 May 2020Host: Jess Mansour-Nahra, Charles Sturt MediaProduction: Adam Thompson, 2MCEDue to our many regional locations, Charles Sturt’s podcast recordings range from phone, to studio, to in-person recordings, leading to some natural variance in recording sound.