Belinda Smith

speaker

2,583 appearances 26 recordings 4 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 18 Sep

Belinda Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 26 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.

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The Science Show · Celebrating David Attenborough’s 100th birthday and a new way of making vaccines · 8 May 2026 podcast

So I popped in to chat to head of operations, Chris Larkins, about the vaccine.

So one of the flu vaccines that Securus makes, Flucelvax, is made an entirely different way to other flu vaccines that are currently available.

How is it different?

So you've been using this cell-based method for a few years now, and the first cell-based vaccines were rolled out in 2021 in Australia.

So how does the cell-based system work and where are the cells from?

The cells came from a dog way back in the 1950s.

Dog kidney cells.

Why not use human cells?

I was going to say I could donate some cells if you needed some.

So you've got this new facility which has been open since the end of last year.

How quickly can that produce vaccines?

If there was a pandemic, I don't know, tomorrow, God forbid, how quickly could you turn around and start producing vaccines against a particular, just say it's a flu virus that becomes...

A pandemic.

How does that compare to if you had the egg-based way of making vaccines?

How much quicker is that?

So that's flu cell vax.

CSL Circus also makes Fluad, which is for older people.

Is that still made in eggs?

I noticed that two of the three flu strains in the egg-based and cell-based vaccines are the same, but one of the influenza A strains is different.

So it's a Singapore strain in the egg-based shots and Sydney strain in the cell-based shots.

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