The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun

[mviy]

So basically just need to get a letter from them saying that they've discussed it with you and they have explained the risks, considered your medical record and are O.K. with you taking the risk then go to vaccine hub and queue up and get it?

I suspect my GP still has severely constrained supply so I'd be waiting a while to get it from them.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

If a there are a stack of unexpected Pfizer walk-ups then people with appointments could miss out on a dose.

Why? They know exactly what the number of appointments are on any given day.

They only inject what they wish to do. If too many turn up then people get just get told that they will not get it on that day. Which is what happened. They did not displace anyone with an appointment.


Walk ups only get what is allocated for the day, plus they also allow any "no-show" appointments doses to be used on the day rather than stored overnight.

This is one reason why many in Vic are having to wait longer than the recommended 3 weeks for their second dose.

The actual reality is that there are ample slots and they are having to chase up people.

Extract from today's Vic DHHS Report 28th June:

Update: Vaccinations​

Yesterday, 14,294 vaccine doses were administered by Victoria's state-commissioned services.​

​

This brings the total number of doses administered at these services to 1,033,384.​

​

Almost 63,000 second doses of Pfizer were administered last week. This week, around 60,000 will be administered through state-run services.​

​

In total, more than 191,000 second doses of Pfizer have been administered since the beginning of the Commonwealth's vaccination program through state-run services.​

​

The Department is calling on people who are scheduled to receive their second dose to come forward and book.​

​

​

The surge in demand meant a slight hiccup as you had a surge of people having first doses, which did not last. People that are flexible where they get their second doses can still have it at 3 weeks. There are empty slots available for those due for their second doses. Plus if people do wish to wait, Pfizer at 6 weeks gives a better result anyway.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Apparently one of the things to come out of today’s meeting will be that vaccination is compulsory for aged care workers. I hope so!

All aged care workers were supposed to be vaccinated in the first six weeks after the vaccine rollout started in February.

Now we are almost in July and two thirds of workers remain unvaccinated, and now the goal is September.

To refer to those running this as a clown car show disrespects the skill and coordination required by professional clowns.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

And if we do not use our AZ .....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409433975538389001

 

[RooFlyer]

The real world studies in the UK and Canada give the optimum time between AZ doses as 8-12 weeks but should be 12 weeks if over 80.

For Pfizer they recommend 4-8 weeks for the second dose but again if over 80 a 12 week interval is much better with antibody levels with a 12 week interval for them are up to 3.5 times greater than with the 3 week interval.

As with nearly everything in Medicine things are not black and white and are rarely applicable to everyone.

Thats all very well, but as an AMA spokesman, what message to you give to Joe Public on ABC radio? Surely not "12 weeks but if Norman Swan says 8 weeks, then thats fine too".

 

[RooFlyer]

I suspect my GP still has severely constrained supply so I'd be waiting a while to get it from them.

Do you need to depend on your GP? My GP isn't doing vaccinations, so I simply got an appointment at another GP; just got my second. (Sorry, I haven't followed if you have particular circumstances - but I hear this all the time ... "I can't get an appointment with my GP, so I can't get vaccinated".)

Same with age care workers or anyone else @Supersonic Swinger . If they really wanted it, why need they wait until the government spoon feeds them? Why couldn't they pick up the phone, click a mouse and get an appointment? Does the Government ('clowns') really need to lead every citizen by the hand and take them to a vaccination place?

Drives me crazy. Someone on the radio today complaining how they can't get an appointment for 5 weeks. FFS! If they called 5 weeks ago, they'd be done! Sorry, that's wrong. If they called around, they'd be in in 2 weeks locally.

 

[Flying mermaid]

All aged care workers were supposed to be vaccinated in the first six weeks after the vaccine rollout started in February.

Now we are almost in July and two thirds of workers remain unvaccinated, and now the goal is September.

To refer to those running this as a clown car show disrespects the skill and coordination required by professional clowns.

It wasn’t compulsory and quite a large number were refusing to get vaccinated. There was no way to make them, now there is.

 

[Flying mermaid]

So basically just need to get a letter from them saying that they've discussed it with you and they have explained the risks, considered your medical record and are O.K. with you taking the risk then go to vaccine hub and queue up and get it?

I suspect my GP still has severely constrained supply so I'd be waiting a while to get it from them.

Why don’t you try a respiratory centre? They count as GPs and if it’s anything like Canberra you will get an appointment very quickly

 

[Batterytraveller]

Also in the announcement was money to pay people for their time to get vaccinated, which, given how low paid and precarious care work often is, is majorly important. I suspect a lot of the gap in care staff vaccinations is not wanting to lose a shift to take the time to get vaxxed.

 

[drron]

And if we do not use our AZ .....

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409433975538389001

So despite the opinions of some the reports of AZ's death have been greatly exaggerated with apologies to Mark Twain.

But the Oxford team have been working hard on other projects.This one could be a major advance.

MSN

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Extract from today's Vic DHHS Report 28th June:

Update: Vaccinations​

Yesterday, 14,294 vaccine doses were administered by Victoria's state-commissioned services.​

​

This brings the total number of doses administered at these services to 1,033,384.​

​

Almost 63,000 second doses of Pfizer were administered last week. This week, around 60,000 will be administered through state-run services.​

​

In total, more than 191,000 second doses of Pfizer have been administered since the beginning of the Commonwealth's vaccination program through state-run services.​

​

The Department is calling on people who are scheduled to receive their second dose to come forward and book.​

​

​

We do not get to see actual figures on individual vaccines that often.

So with 191,000 second does given that is about 382,000 doses of Pfizer given by the Vic Gov up till now. . Plus in the state whatever the Feds have delivered in aged/disability care. GP's would not have given much Pfizer yet, but that will start to change.

There have been about 4.1 million doses of Pfizer doses that have arrived in Australia to date.

So that will be about 1.7/1.8 million does of AZ injected in Vic to date.

 

[mviy]

Hmmm my local GP has appointments on Monday currently available on Hotdoc. Maybe I'll go to the GP and book in for one of those if I can. If not ask for a letter saying that I've gone to them and discussed the vaccine and then try a vaccine hub.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Same with age care workers or anyone else @Supersonic Swinger . If they really wanted it, why need they wait until the government spoon feeds them? Why couldn't they pick up the phone, click a mouse and get an appointment? Does the Government ('clowns') really need to lead every citizen by the hand and take them to a vaccination place?

Sadly it appears so. The "it's not a race" mantra means Australia is dead last amongst the OECD. The number of people who tell me they will wait to get it because they don't feel there's any hurry drives me up the wall.

Compelling all workers involved in the quarantine system to be vaccinated should have been the first thing the government insisted on, followed by aged care. As this latest outbreak proves, the costs of limo companies complaining about the difficulty of implementing that among workers vs the economic and social costs of lockdowns from outbreaks should be self evident.

 

[mviy]

The regular GPs I see at the practice seem to pretty booked up this week though. I guess I might walk down there and take my chances that one may be available to get approval to book the vaccine.

 

[mviy]

The National Cabinet Statement and PM's Virtual Press Conference transcripts have been published.

 

[Lynda2475]

The regular GPs I see at the practice seem to pretty booked up this week though. I guess I might walk down there and take my chances that one may be available to get approval to book the vaccine.

Just book via the official link which shows all State run hubs and Commonwealth hubs as well as the GPs taking appointments. Vaccines Eligibility Checker

It is much much easier to get a Pfizer appointment at a hub than a GP, given most GP clinics aren't yet onboarded for Pfizer.

 

[mviy]

Just book via the official link which shows all State run hubs and Commonwealth hubs as well as the GPs taking appointments. Vaccines Eligibility Checker

It is much much easier to get a Pfizer appointment at a hub than a GP, given most GP clinics aren't yet onboarded for Pfizer.

I would like to get Pfizer but as I'm too young to be eligible for Pfizer yet, AZ will probably be all that is offered.

 

[mviy]

Hmmm tried to book a vaccine and the online tool said not eligible.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Hmmm tried to book a vaccine and the online tool said not eligible.

Give them some time to update the online system - also a call to make a vaccine appointment might work better.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

The National Cabinet Statement and PM's Virtual Press Conference transcripts have been published.

Interestingly last week 560,000 Pfizer doses administered and 220,000 Astra Zeneca doses administered.

Currently there are 2.6 million Astra Zeneca doses available to be administered.