http://www.tasmaniavaccinesolutions.com.au/

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions, Launceston (2025)

09/11/2025

🧠 Myth Busting Monday: Ice Cream Doesn’t Cause Shark Attacks and the Flu Vaccine Doesn’t Give You the Flu! 🍦🦈💉

Ever seen that funny graph showing ice cream sales going up at the same time as shark attacks?
Some people claim one causes the other but really, they both rise in summer because of the same underlying factor: warm weather.

☀️ More heat = more beach days (so more shark encounters) and more ice cream sales.
It’s not cause and effect... it’s coincidence.

The same logic applies to the myth that “the flu vaccine gives you the flu.”
Some people feel a bit tired or achey after vaccination and assume it caused the flu but that’s like blaming ice cream for sharks.

Here’s the science 👇
💉 The flu vaccine contains inactivated virus, it can’t cause infection.
💤 The mild symptoms some people get are actually your immune system doing its job, building protection.
🌡️ You might coincidentally catch another virus around the same time (especially in winter), but that’s not the vaccine’s fault.

So next time you hear someone swear that “the flu shot gave me the flu,” remember, correlation isn’t causation.
Just because two things happen close together doesn’t mean one caused the other.

Stay sharp, stay kind, and enjoy your ice cream in peace this summer. 🍨

05/11/2025

⚔️ When Disease Changed History: Napoleon’s Army & Typhus

In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte marched into Russia at the head of one of the greatest armies Europe had ever seen. More than 600,000 soldiers, the Grand Armée, stretched for miles, carrying the promise of French victory.

But it wasn’t just the Russians waiting for them.

As the army advanced, cramped camps and poor sanitation created the perfect breeding ground for lice-borne typhus. Soldiers developed raging fevers, rashes, and delirium. Men collapsed on the march, and field hospitals overflowed. Disease spread faster than any musket fire.

Then came the bitter Russian winter. The army froze, starved, and stumbled, but it was typhus that tore through their ranks with the greatest force. By the time Napoleon ordered a retreat, fewer than 100,000 soldiers returned. The rest were claimed by hunger, frost, and above all, disease.

👉 Napoleon planned to conquer Russia. But typhus had other plans.

✨ History teaches us that the fate of nations is not always sealed on the battlefield. Time and again, it has been disease, silent, unseen, relentless that has brought armies to their knees, toppled empires, and rewritten the story of civilisation. Napoleon’s Grand Armée was one of the strongest forces ever assembled, yet it was undone not by strategy or firepower, but by lice carrying typhus.

The lesson echoes through time: the greatest battles in history have often been fought not against kings and generals, but against microbes too small to see.

05/11/2025

Big news! 🎉
I got into Nurse Practitioner School at QUT.

Standing here with Dr Paul and Lynnette, our Practice Manager at City Mission Health, I feel incredibly grateful to be surrounded by such supportive people.

A huge thank you to City Mission for having me on as a Nurse Practitioner student and to Jane for her mentorship, it means the world.

I’m so excited to take my nursing career to the next level and keep doing what I love most: primary care, rural and remote work, and preventive health.

Here’s to new beginnings, community care, and a whole lot of learning ahead. 💉💪✨

03/11/2025

🚨✈️ Measles Alert for Travellers... Check Your Vaccinations Before You Fly

Health authorities have issued a measles alert after cases were linked to travellers returning from Bali. Measles isn’t just a childhood illness, it’s one of the most contagious viruses known. In fact, if one person has measles, up to 9 out of 10 unvaccinated people around them will become infected.

Measles spreads through tiny airborne droplets when someone coughs or sneezes, and the virus can linger in the air for up to 2 hours. Symptoms usually appear 7–18 days after exposure and include fever, cough, runny nose, sore eyes, and a spreading rash. Complications such as pneumonia, ear infections, and encephalitis (brain inflammation) can occur, particularly in young children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised people.

💉 Vaccination is the key to protection:

Two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine provide lifelong protection in almost all people.

Adults born after 1965 should check they have had two documented doses.

Those born before 1965, usually have immunity from natural immunity.

Infants 6–11 months old should receive an early dose before international travel, then continue with the routine schedule.

If you’re planning overseas travel, check your vaccination history now. Catch-up doses are safe and effective, and it’s never too late to get protected.

Travel should bring home memories, not preventable illness. 🧳🌏

30/10/2025

🧛🎃🐺 Happy Halloween! Where Science Meets Spooky Legends 🦠🧪👻

🦠 Rabies: The Disease That Birthed Monsters

Long before Hollywood, before Dracula or the Wolf Man, there was rabies.

In Italian, rabbia meant both rabies and anger. In French, rage. In Greek, lyssa. The very words straddled the line between disease and fury.

Victims of rabies would snarl, drool, fear water, and lash out with unprovoked violence. They bit. They spread their curse. To the terrified communities of centuries past, these were not patients, they were monsters.

It’s little wonder that rabies wrote the script for the creatures of legend:

🧛 Vampires, prowling the night and passing on their iniquity with a bite.
🐺 Werewolves, stricken with sudden madness and cursed to attack their neighbours.

Rabies blurred the line between sickness and myth, turning medical tragedy into folklore that still haunts us today.

✨ The real monster was a virus. But its shadow lingers in every story of vampires, werewolves, and the rage that consumes. And while science has given us vaccines and protection, the echoes of rabies still howl through our legends every Halloween. 🌙🎃

28/10/2025

💉👩‍⚕️ What Resilience Really Looks Like in Small Business

When I started my small business, I thought resilience meant having a solid plan, a brave face, and a “never quit” attitude. Turns out, resilience looks very different in real life.

It looks like writing policies at midnight after a long nursing shift.
It looks like turning the boot of my Mazda into a vaccine fridge and driving across the state.
It looks like sending invoices while stirring the dinner pot, and making tough financial calls while also making school lunches.
It looks like sitting in the car before a big meeting, giving myself a pep talk because I’m walking in as “just me” a nurse with an idea against national corporations with endless resources.

Resilience isn’t glamorous. It’s messy, scrappy, and sometimes lonely. But it’s also deeply rewarding. Because every time I roll up my sleeves and vaccinate someone, I see why I started: to make healthcare more local, accessible, and human.

To my fellow small business owners: resilience isn’t about never being knocked down. It’s about learning to get back up, tired, overwhelmed, but still driven by purpose.

✨ That’s what resilience really looks like.

26/10/2025

💉 Myth-Busting Monday: “Measles is just a harmless childhood illness.”

Let’s get scientific because this one’s dangerous and misunderstood.

🦠 Here’s what measles really does:
When the measles virus enters the body, it infects immune cells especially memory B and T cells, which your immune system uses to recognise and respond to past infections or vaccines.

Once infected, measles destroys up to 20–70% of these memory cells.

That means:
Your body “forgets” how to fight diseases it already beat

You’re left open to flu, pneumonia, RSV, and a crowd of unnamed bugs your immune system used to know how to handle.

📚 This phenomenon — known as immune amnesia — can leave your immune system weakened for 2 to 3 years, making you more susceptible to infections your body once knew how to fight.

👩‍⚕️ Why does this matter?
People who’ve recovered from measles often experience a significant spike in secondary infections over the following years including hospitalisations for otherwise preventable illnesses.

So when we say measles is dangerous, we don’t just mean the initial illness, we mean the long-term hit to your immune system.

💩 Bonus fun fact (not actually fun):
Yes, measles can also cause vomiting and diarrhoea — especially in children. So if "immune system wipeout" didn’t worry you, maybe "explosive gastro and a hospital visit" will.

✅ The solution?
The MMR vaccine protects against measles without damaging your immune memory.
Instead of erasing your body’s defences, it strengthens them — training your immune system without the risk of immune amnesia.

💉 Safe.
💪 Strong.
🧠 Memory fully intact.

23/10/2025

🌍 Hero Friday: Lino, South Sudan’s Vaccination Hero 🌍

Not all heroes wear scrubs or lab coats. Some walk for miles across floodplains and conflict zones with nothing but quiet determination and hope.

This week’s hero is Lino, a community health worker in South Sudan.

Every day, Lino sets out on foot to reach families in remote villages — places where health care is scarce and the risks are high. He doesn’t just deliver vaccines; he educates, reassures, and protects children from deadly but preventable diseases.

For Lino, this isn’t just a job. It’s a daily act of courage. His commitment means that even the most vulnerable children have a chance to grow up healthy, safe, and free to live life to its fullest.

His work reflects the heart of World Vision’s mission: a world where no child is left behind and every child has the chance to become all they are created to be.

Today we celebrate Lino, a reminder that sometimes the bravest heroes are the ones who simply keep showing up, step after step, no matter how hard the road. 💉💜

https://champ.ly/VXpCKU3I

21/10/2025

Business Wednesday 💼

Confessions from my first year of business, otherwise known as my Google search history:

“What actually happens if you forget GST?”

“How to write a professional email that doesn’t sound like I’m begging.”

“ABN vs ACN (pls explain like I’m 5).”

“Best free Canva template to look like I have my life together.”

“How many coffees can I claim as a tax deduction before it looks suspicious?” ☕

“What to wear to a networking breakfast so I don’t look like a dag.”

“How long can you keep calling yourself a ‘start-up’ before you’re just a business?”

“How to add GST to an invoice without breaking into a cold sweat.”

Turns out small business is basically:
☑ Coffee
☑ Chaos
☑ Late-night Googling
☑ …and a whole lot of learning on the fly.

To all my fellow small business owners, you’re not the only one winging it. 😉

20/10/2025

🌱💉 Myth Busting Monday – Tassie Mum Edition

Myth: “Natural immunity is always better than vaccines.”
Fact: Catching the disease to get immunity can mean serious illness, long-term health problems, or even death. Vaccines give your body the same training without the risk.

Think of it this way: saying “I’ll just get the disease” is like teaching your teenager to drive by handing them the keys and sending them straight onto the Midlands Highway in peak traffic. Sure, they’ll “learn”, but there’s a much safer way. Vaccines are like driving lessons, you get the skills without the crash.

Science shows “natural” isn’t always harmless: measles can cause brain damage, chickenpox can come back later in life as shingles, and flu kills thousands every year. Vaccines mimic the germ, build your immune memory, and leave out all the dangerous bits.

👉 Tassie mum tip: Don’t play roulette with your health (or your kids’). Take the safe option, vaccines give you the immunity without the drama.

16/10/2025

🐦 Back in History: The Plague Doctor

In the 1600s, when plague swept through European cities, a strange and unsettling figure walked the streets: the plague doctor.

Dressed head to toe in long black robes, gloves, boots, and a mask with a giant bird-like beak, they looked more like something from a nightmare than a healer. But every part of the outfit had a purpose.

According to historical accounts, the cloak and hat were to cover the body completely, often made from oiled Moroccan leather, thought to stop “miasma”, the poisonous air believed to spread disease from entering through the pores. The most important piece, however, was the mask. Its long beak was filled with strong herbs such as wormwood (famously used in absinthe), lavender, mint, cloves, or even a vinegar-soaked sponge. The powerful scents were believed to “filter” the bad air and keep the doctor safe.

But plague doctors weren’t private physicians with paying patients, they were essentially public servants. They patrolled the streets during outbreaks, deciding which houses to lock up or condemn, which neighbourhoods to quarantine, and which bodies to bury or burn. They were enforcers of public health at a time when cities were desperate for control.

The glass eyepieces, gloves, boots, and leather layers created one of the first crude forms of personal protective equipment (PPE). While it didn’t stop plague bacteria, it sometimes provided real protection against fleas and droplets (the true culprits behind plague spread), and it gave people a sense of safety in terrifying times.

✨ The bird mask has since become a chilling symbol of pandemics, fear, and superstition. But it also shows something universal: when faced with an invisible enemy, people turn to science, creativity, and whatever tools they have to survive.

Today, we wear masks, gloves, and gowns of our own, not filled with herbs, but built on centuries of medical progress. Guided by germ theory, virology, and evidence, our PPE is far more effective, but the purpose is the same: protect those on the frontlines.

The plague doctor’s mask might look eerie at Halloween, but its legacy is serious. Protecting health workers was vital 400 years ago, and it’s just as vital today.

13/10/2025

🚨 South Australia just hit its worst month of ambulance ramping ever with nearly 6,000 hours of people stuck waiting in ambulances because there were no hospital beds. Some waited up to 12 hours, and others were treated in corridors because Emergency Departments were overflowing.

It’s shocking, but here in Tasmania we’re not far behind. We’ve all seen the ambulances lined up outside the LGH or RHH, heard of patients waiting hours, and know staff are at breaking point. Our system is stretched so thin that the next crisis could tip it over completely.

And here’s the scary part: if you or someone you love has a heart attack or stroke, every minute counts. But when the system is this overwhelmed, those minutes can be lost.

A big part of the pressure comes from preventable illness. Every year flu, COVID, and other vaccine-preventable diseases take up beds that should be there for true emergencies. Vaccination doesn’t just protect you, it protects hospital capacity for the whole community.

💡 What Tasmanians can do to help ease the pressure:

✅ Stay up to date with flu, COVID, and other vaccines.

✅ Use Urgent Care Clinics, GPs, or pharmacies when it’s not an emergency.

✅ Stay home, rest, and use common sense for minor illnesses instead of heading straight to ED.

✅ Call 000 only for true emergencies, chest pain, stroke symptoms, severe breathing issues, major trauma.

Our hospitals should be there for the sickest of the sick. Right now, we’re too close to breaking point.

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions

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