The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun

[Flying mermaid]

At times I wonder if threads such as these (started with all good intent) are more of a hinderance than helpful. The problem in my mind is social media and aggregated news channels are feeding the masses. There are some on this site who put forward an opinion or advice without any a medical background or formal training. There are others who obviously work or have been trained in a medical field however at times one has to read between the lines of what they post. Then there are others that are in a position to provide fact based information/commentary with the qualifications to back it up. Most numb-nuts read what is front of them and accept that is gospel. I have not done any fact checking and could not be bothered to do so but from what I have read there has only been a handful (maybe 3-5) people die in AU from the AZ jab. Then there is a knee jerk reaction from the Government and everything is thrown into chaos again. I maybe wrong but I would have thought there are more deaths in AU related to vaccine's, peanuts, dairy, bees, or any other allergies when compared to AZ.

2 deaths only in Australia and as I have posted previously you are a lot more likely to die every time you get in your car to travel somewhere, than from AZ. However let’s not let statistics get in the way of hysteria.

 

[jakeseven7]

2 deaths only in Australia and as I have posted previously you are a lot more likely to die every time you get in your car to travel somewhere, than from AZ. However let’s not let statistics get in the way of hysteria.

Starting the countdown clock now for your flaming

 

[jakeseven7]

Seems others have different experiences - The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun "A lot of our younger workers (who got vaccinated because of our industry) friends are very jealous and would happily take AZ if they could....."

Youth media as well as the ABC is covering this heavily now too and if you read the thousands of comments on social, most of them would take any vaccine including AZ, right now if they were allowed to.... I think Brett Sutton might be onto something.

 

[Flying mermaid]

People have to take some responsibility for their own attitudes as well. I know people who just haven’t felt any urgency to get vaccinated. Plenty of appointments but everything else was more important - they weren’t hesitant and intended to do it, but “when they had time”, or after the term finished and they had didn’t have marking to do, or they didn’t want AZ, because Pfizer was “better” or a thousand other excuses. Yes the marketing by the government has been appalling but it’s a shared responsibility. I was desperate to get vaccinated and chased it and easily got vaccinated - in fact a week before my age group was eligible. Know plenty of others who were the same.

anyway we are just about at 30% of Australians with at least a first vaccination and two thirds of over 70s, so closer to the vulnerable being safe. I kind of feel anyone over 70 who hasn’t bothered getting vaccinated, when they are able to be vaccinated, is just plain dumb.

 

[Matt_01]

2 deaths only in Australia

TBH(onest) I was quite aware that there has been only 2 deaths attributed to AZ. I only posted the 3-5 number so the anti vaxxers would have something to feed off and then get shot down.

It would seem like I am in the same category/ line of thinking as @Flying mermaid, I deliberately rearranged travel to get to MEL once Jeff's shed was announced as a hub. My plan did not work out (user error) I had only had the normal flu jab 3 days earlier. I had to wait another week and a half before I could get the Covid jab.

 

[Matt_01]

Youth media as well as the ABC is covering this heavily now too and if you read the thousands of comments on social, most of them would take any vaccine including AZ, right now if they were allowed to....

You may have to be careful about what you post. Our resident AFF locals that are not medically trained, highly opinionated and self appointed spokespersons for the younger generation AZ vrs pfizer may disagree. Just saying.

 

[mviy]

I just want to see an ETA as to when I can get it. I want to be fully vaccinated October latest. I would have taken the AZ months ago, but still not eligible to get either vaccine. I have been thinking about queuing up to get a spare dose but if they'll only give me Pfizer and aren't taking walk-ins even for those eligible at the moment, what's the point in even trying?

I would travel interstate to some place I could go if I would be reasonably confident that I could get it there.

In any case the politicians are giving every indication that they have no intention on relaxing rules for international travel any time soon and considering international travel to see family is the main reason I feel urgency to get vaccinated it makes me wonder why I bother paying attention to all of this as I just get more and more frustrated that there's no end in sight to this madness.

 

[jakeseven7]

You may have to be careful about what you post. Our resident AFF locals that are not medically trained, highly opinionated and self appointed spokespersons for the younger generation AZ vrs pfizer may disagree. Just saying.

Haha totally, I know this board skews very... maturely aged - but it’s good for them to hear what’s going on in other cohorts too

 

[kamchatsky]

Good news for people vaccinated on Pfizer or AZ:

Vaccines highly effective against hospitalisation from Delta variant

New analysis by PHE shows for the first time that 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant.

www.gov.uk

 

[Must...Fly!]

Good news for people vaccinated on Pfizer or AZ:

Vaccines highly effective against hospitalisation from Delta variant

New analysis by PHE shows for the first time that 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant.

www.gov.uk

I thought AZ was poor against Delta.... Or have we been sold a lemon. Again.

 

[Pushka]

I thought AZ was poor against Delta.... Or have we been sold a lemon. Again.

And I just read a report on this forum stating they were both not effective

 

[Must...Fly!]

And I just read a report on this forum stating they were both not effective

It's understandable that in a vacuum of information, anything that provides any sort of information will get some play in the media. But it seems to me that when something is new (i.e. the new variant) it gets lots of coverage, but then we move on to the next new thing.

So when the media print "big scary new variant, vaccines useless against it" and a month later it turns out the big scary new variant either (a) isn't so scary and/or (b) vaccines are perfectly effective against it, that gets skipped over and the damage is already done. Particularly when one vaccine is singled out as being allegedly problematic with protection.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I just want to see an ETA as to when I can get it. I want to be fully vaccinated October latest. I would have taken the AZ months ago, but still not eligible to get either vaccine. I have been thinking about queuing up to get a spare dose but if they'll only give me Pfizer and aren't taking walk-ins even for those eligible at the moment, what's the point in even trying?

I would travel interstate to some place I could go if I would be reasonably confident that I could get it there.

In any case the politicians are giving every indication that they have no intention on relaxing rules for international travel any time soon and considering international travel to see family is the main reason I feel urgency to get vaccinated it makes me wonder why I bother paying attention to all of this as I just get more and more frustrated that there's no end in sight to this madness.

Hang in there! ACT released the amount of Pfizer they are expecting from October onwards - 50,000 doses per week. So I suspect Aus is going to have masses of Pfizer and anyone who wants to get vaccinated will get vaccinated very quickly.

the other half when will travel open up - well it’s just very frustrating. If only they would issue some metrics or milestones but I suspect they don’t want to as it will be just another stick to beat them with. The only way out of the mess is vaccination so maybe just focus on that, get vaccinated as soon as you can - that is the only part you can control.

 

[RAM]

I thought AZ was poor against Delta.... Or have we been sold a lemon. Again.

As the saying goes (roughly) - torture the numbers and they will say anything.

The same goes with definitions of words. Vaccination, immunization, efficacy..

Vaccine - prior to CV, I (& perhaps most) thought that an 'effective' vaccine would create immunity. So prevent you catching whatever illness/disease/virus that it was designed for. Also that as a consequence - you would not be able to infect others with it after being 'vaccinated'.

None of the various vaccines developed to date for CV, regardless whether old tech (using eggs for example), mixed tech or new tech (mRNA) fit that definition. Someone who is fully vaccinated can still become infected with CV as well as pass it on to others.

Efficacy - again prior to CV, I thought of efficacy as reflecting what proportion of vaccine recipients were made immune to the illness/disease/virus. Whether it is part of the spin-doctoring by the pharma companies or Govts (akin to Microsoft being able to sell faulty software with no liability for problems it causes ie: Windows) the new definition of efficacy has altered.

It has gone from the proportion of people immune and now has around 5 separate meanings depending on the narrative sought for CV. None of those meanings relate to being immune from infection nor immune from onward transmission.

1. Efficacy = reducing deaths.
2. Efficacy = reducing ICU intervention
3. Efficacy = reducing hospitalisations
4. Efficacy = reducing onward transmission
5. Efficacy = reducing symptomatic infections & making them non-symptomatic instead

Depending on the article or study & the particular 'use' of efficacy then provides different headlines. One of the more reliable versions (from the UK Gov) is that the 1st dose of AZ only has around low 30% (#2 or possibly #3) efficacy against the Delta (or 2nd Indian) variant but I have not re-read the details closely this week. After the 1st dose, AZ has much higher 'efficacy' for the China variant & others bar the South African & 2nd Indian variant.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

138,434 injections yesterday. So roughly 140K per day seems to be the Mon to Friday level at present

 

[Flying mermaid]

138,434 injections yesterday. So roughly 140K per day seems to be the Mon to Friday level at present

View attachment 251302


View attachment 251304


View attachment 251305

They did say this week would drop slightly as the swap to Pfizer for under 60s happened. Hopefully accelerate again next week.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Both of the Drycleaner cases in Victoria have entered hotel quarantine.

 

[kyle]

Both of the Drycleaner cases in Victoria have entered hotel quarantine.

View attachment 251314

Hope they don't go in and come out with something else!

 

[Seat0B]

I just want to see an ETA as to when I can get it. I want to be fully vaccinated October latest. I would have taken the AZ months ago, but still not eligible to get either vaccine. I have been thinking about queuing up to get a spare dose but if they'll only give me Pfizer and aren't taking walk-ins even for those eligible at the moment, what's the point in even trying?

I would travel interstate to some place I could go if I would be reasonably confident that I could get it there.

In any case the politicians are giving every indication that they have no intention on relaxing rules for international travel any time soon and considering international travel to see family is the main reason I feel urgency to get vaccinated it makes me wonder why I bother paying attention to all of this as I just get more and more frustrated that there's no end in sight to this madness.

I was on the Gold Coast last week and at Burleigh Heads in James Street there was a medical practice with a sign out saying they would vaccinate anyone on a walk in basis - and specifically mentioned no age limits. I did not note the name of it but it was between Social Brew and the end of James St nearest the bowling green. You might try there?

 

[mviy]

Not sure I'm going to head up to QLD from VIC at the moment, but will need to think about things. I may see how things go with further easing of travel restrictions of people travelling from VIC for now.