On Tuesday evening, I presented to this committee of expert advisers on a new-ish framework for grading the quality of evidence in studies that they will need to start using and/or propose adjustments to the framework in order to use. It was a quick little 5-minute presentation, but it was exciting to have face-time with so many people in the vaccine world. The rest of the meeting I was pretty much in charge of scrolling through people's slides for their presentations (see the laptop next to me) --- not a problem when the individual was in the room, but really really hard when someone gave a presentation via teleconference. I also got to visit with Meghan Stack, who I worked for at the International Vaccine Access Center at Hopkins all of last year --- we are in the same field of research and we went an entire year without figuring that out until we met in Geneva... oh, life. This is what Salle D of the WHO (one of several conference rooms) looks like, if you're interested:
On Thursday, I had meetings with Raymond and Mark Jit (London researcher/professor that I have mentioned before) about my two projects. I have gotten started on my "secondary" project validating their HPV vaccine costing tool for country level introduction, but my primary project is a little bit in flux. After some feedback on Mark's broader economic impact of vaccines presentation to the advisory committee, I may be changing topics somewhat, but the next 2 weeks will be focused on the HPV vaccine work in any case. I am really looking forward to working with Raymond and Mark, and it is possible that our research collaboration may extend beyond this fall --- which would mean the possibility of more public health publications for me, always a good thing.
Friday after work I headed to Coppet, a small neighboring town of Geneva to sort of house-sit/babysit for a Hopkins professor that currently lives there. Here's the amazing view from the house:
Yesterday (Saturday), I got up and went back down to Geneva from Coppet to meet the other 3 Hopkins interns for a little day trip to Lausanne and Montreux. I don't think I ever posted that picture of all of us... here we are:
From left to right: Jennifer, me, Jill, and Victor.
As previously stated, we took the train from Geneva to Lausanne, and from there we took the La Suisse ferry down the lake to Montreux:
It was unfortunately a fairly rainy day, but we were able to see some of the vineyards of the famous Lavaux wine region, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Plus, we had delicious hot chocolates.
After lunch (and a delicious creme brulee for dessert), we saw the statue of Freddie Mercury, as he wrote and recorded some of his last songs in Montreux.
Me looking up to see what his pose actually looks like:
A better attempt at the pose:
We then took the bus to see the Chateau de Chillon, a really old Swiss castle (11th or 12th century) written about in a poem by Lord Byron called The Prisoner of Chillon.
Post-castle viewing, it was mostly wandering around Montreux, which probably would have been better in less rain. But we definitely made a day of it! I spent night in Coppet again (best sort of babysitting gig ever) and spent today working and watching TV (my favorite). Back to the grind this week gathering data for that costing tool validation!
Allison - you look so important with your nametag! This is a wonderful post. Love those food pics! And Freddie Mercury. Who would have ever known he had his own statue!
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