ECDC on air.

The podcast of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Keeping up to date with European Epidemiology.

Hello, welcome and thanks for tuning in to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Audio series,

ECDC on air. I'm your host Lee, recording from our headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

This past year through the pandemic, you might have heard of ECDC being mentioned here and there,

but you may be unfamiliar with what actually goes on here in Stockholm when we're not talking about the COVID-19 pandemic. As an EU agency, ECDC aims to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases.

We cover a wide range of subjects including surveillance, preparedness, epidemic intelligence and

response measures.

We provide scientific advice, give public health training and raise awareness through our disease

programs.

But simply, we do quite a lot.

On today's episode,

we are speaking with Dr. Piotr-Kramash, deputy chief scientist here at ECDC. We discuss the importance

of vaccines, a little bit about the history, the role ECDC plays when it comes to vaccine monitoring

and scheduling in Europe, and how vaccines can help fight not only COVID-19, but also other diseases.

We encourage everyone who has offered the vaccine for COVID-19 to take it,

but also to remember the importance of getting vaccines for other vaccine-preventable diseases. So we're here today with Dr. Piotr Kramar, who is the Deputy Chief Scientist here at ECDC.

Piotr, welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

To begin with, how long have you been here at ECDC and

what brought you here originally? I've been here for 14 years now, but it feels like I joined

...