The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun

[DC3]

Supply is only an issue if you don't want AZ or have some health issue that means it's not advisable to take it.

AZ is available to all adults with permission from your GP.

I'm under 40 and have had AZ and am still here. Several million young people have had it overseas.

Even though AZ has a recommended 12 week gap between doses that's still short enough time to get fully vaccinated well before Pfizer is made available to everyone who wants that.

Had the UoQ candidate been successful and the AZ not been slammed over very rare side effects, you can be sure the Opposition would have been very critical now of the government wasting money purchasing 40 million Pfizer doses had they done so when they ordered the original 10 million.

Yeah, same here, having had the 2nd AZ a month ago, and seem to still be here.

Edit: Should have mentioned that we need at least 40 million doses, all up. We don’t have that. So, definitely a shortage until then, regardless of the reasons

 

[mviy]

A wait for 80%+ before opening up would see the borders closed well into next year, I'd like to be optimistic and think a freedom day of sorts where home quarantine is available would be announced well before hitting a figure of 80%. Say if we hit 60% overall (including 70% of over 70s) you then use a freedom day to encourage the rest to go and get the jab if they want it. The only way I can see us hitting 80% this year is if the governments decide very soon to let the virus rip through the community to drive people to vaccinate which they have shown no intention of doing.

The fear of catching the virus in the UK is a motivator that is nowhere near as strong in most of Australia. I still don't know any of my friends in Melbourne having caught the virus even though the media made out that we had a huge problem all over Melbourne last year.

 

[DC3]

We have a lot of people that have had AZ first doses coming due to get their second doses. That plus Pfizer doses ramping up should see our fully vaccinated percentage climb quickly for the rest of the year.

Did you steal that statement from the Australian Prime Minister? . It sounds rather familiar.

 

[mviy]

Did you steal that statement from the Australian Prime Minister? . It sounds rather familiar.

Well it is objectively true. The advertising campaign needs to encourage people to get their 2nd AZ dose and to come forward and get vaccinated with whichever vaccine they will take if they haven't had any.

Personally, I think the next move should be to open up Pfizer to everyone over 40 who hasn't had AZ, rather than opening it up to under 40s next. I'm not at all sure which way the government will go with that.

If we want to start home quarantine properly ASAP rather than just a trial we need to get the vulnerable over 60s who haven't yet had any vaccine dose to take whichever vaccine they will take ASAP.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Yeah, same here, having had the 2nd AZ a month ago, and seem to still be here.

Edit: Should have mentioned that we need at least 40 million doses, all up. We don’t have that. So, definitely a shortage until then, regardless of the reasons

Did I misread Pfizer's statement this week said they had a contract to deliver 40m this year 2021??? How coincidental.....

 

[Flying mermaid]

Yeah, same here, having had the 2nd AZ a month ago, and seem to still be here.

Edit: Should have mentioned that we need at least 40 million doses, all up. We don’t have that. So, definitely a shortage until then, regardless of the reasons

But we will from October have much more than 40 million. Pfizer has been contracted to deliver 40 million by the end of the year for ages. We are churning out millions of doses of AZ which our precious Australians don’t want so we are giving it to neighbours like Fiji and Indonesia and PNG (which is a good thing). Novovaxx turns up at some point. 50 million doses I think.

so yes we sort of currently have a supply problem because people don’t want AZ, but it will rapidly vanish. I still think the problem is going to be motivating people to have it.

I have been nagging a good friend in Sydney since the beginning of May to get vaccinated. Not against it, not even against AZ although he is early 50s. It’s taken the latest outbreak for him to finally do something about it and even then only a few days ago.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

But we will from October have much more than 40 million. Pfizer has been contracted to deliver 40 million by the end of the year for ages. We are churning out millions of doses of AZ which our precious Australians don’t want so we are giving it to neighbours like Fiji and Indonesia and PNG (which is a good thing). Novovaxx turns up at some point. 50 million doses I think.

so yes we sort of currently have a supply problem because people don’t want AZ, but it will rapidly vanish. I still think the problem is going to be motivating people to have it.

I have been nagging a good friend in Sydney since the beginning of May to get vaccinated. Not against it, not even against AZ although he is early 50s. It’s taken the latest outbreak for him to finally do something about it and even then only a few days ago.

re your Sydney friend - better late/now than never.

 

[Flying mermaid]

re your Sydney friend - better late/now than never.

True .

 

[jakeseven7]

But we will from October have much more than 40 million. Pfizer has been contracted to deliver 40 million by the end of the year for ages. We are churning out millions of doses of AZ which our precious Australians don’t want so we are giving it to neighbours like Fiji and Indonesia and PNG (which is a good thing). Novovaxx turns up at some point. 50 million doses I think.

so yes we sort of currently have a supply problem because people don’t want AZ, but it will rapidly vanish. I still think the problem is going to be motivating people to have it.

I have been nagging a good friend in Sydney since the beginning of May to get vaccinated. Not against it, not even against AZ although he is early 50s. It’s taken the latest outbreak for him to finally do something about it and even then only a few days ago.

Similar circumstance, a friends mother in Sydney was terrified by all the media rubbish around AZ, has finally come around to getting it - now can’t get in and get jabbed till August. A certain amount of ‘we told you so’ comes into it but it’s more just sad that the media/gov destroyed so much confidence.

 

[Pushka]

Did you steal that statement from the Australian Prime Minister? . It sounds rather familiar.

Well that's good because it's true. Who'dve guessed!

 

[Flying mermaid]

So while some on here continue to be miserable about our roll out, spare a thought for South Africa. They put their faith in Astra Zeneca (easy to deliver for a developing country and cheaper). Unfortunately it proved ineffective against the South African variant, so they swapped to Pfizer and found themselves at the back of the queue. Now Delta is rampaging through Johannesburg, but will spread. Hospitals are overflowing and my brother says for the first time he has friends on ventilators and some have died.

 

[mviy]

If they still have AZ they could use it to fight against Delta, perhaps even try AZ for first dose and Pfizer for 2nd dose to try to get a bit of protection against both Delta and South African.

 

[Spongbob]

Similar circumstance, a friends mother in Sydney was terrified by all the media rubbish around AZ, ...

Also the confusing messages from the Federal govt: AZ good; AZ bad: AZ good if your GP says so etc

 

[Oneworldplus2]

If they still have AZ they could use it to fight against Delta, perhaps even try AZ for first dose and Pfizer for 2nd dose to try to get a bit of protection against both Delta and South African.

BioNTech press release

While Pfizer and BioNTech believe a third dose of BNT162b2 has the potential to preserve the highest levels of protective efficacy against all currently tested variants including Delta, the companies are remaining vigilant and are developing an updated version of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that targets the full spike protein of the Delta variant. The first batch of the mRNA for the trial has already been manufactured at BioNTech’s facility in Mainz, Germany. The Companies anticipate the clinical studies to begin in August, subject to regulatory approvals.​

Pfizer and BioNTech Provide Update on Booster Program in Light of the Delta-Variant | BioNTech

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Fake COVID vaccine certificates sold on dark web for €150​

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Italian police say they have caught and stopped a series of online schemes offering to sell fake EU COVID travel certificates, as well as offers of purported coronavirus vaccines.​

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The country's law enforcement says it has seized control of 10 channels on the encrypted messaging service Telegram linked to anonymous accounts in marketplaces on the so-called dark web, through which it was possible to contact the sellers, who required payment in cryptocurrency.​

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Such listings may be actual genuine offers, but also attempts to scam people.​

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"Through the internet and through these channels, you can sell things everywhere in the world," Gianluca Berruti, head of the Milan tax police's cyber-fraud unit told Euronews.​

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"What was nice is that in the offer it was said that these fake [COVID travel] passports and these vaccines were available not only in Europe, but also in other countries, for example in Switzerland, in the UK, in the US, and we also found them in New Zealand and far away countries."​

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Prices ranged from €100 to €150, depending on the package. Some offers included a vial of vaccine with the certificate.​

Fake COVID vaccine certificates sold on dark web for €150


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[lovetravellingoz]

NSW has moved to the second dose of AZ now being at 6 weeks due the circumstances of the present outbreak.

That will mean that a large pool pf people can now get their second dose.

 

[justinbrett]

NSW has moved to the second dose of AZ now being at 6 weeks due the circumstances of the present outbreak.

I wonder if Janette Young would like to review her comments that young people were more likely to die of AZ with people under 40 in ICU including a teenager on a ventilator.

The hospitalisations and (and now death) in NSW should be a wake up call to the entire country.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I wonder if Janette Young would like to review her comments that young people were more likely to die of AZ with people under 40 in ICU including a teenager on a ventilator.

The hospitalisations and (and now death) in NSW should be a wake up call to the entire country.

Agree.

Many of us have been stressing for a while that vaccination is a community program (ie to be successful it is the wide population that needs to be vaccinated and not just any one individual) and to not have used AZ, an effective vaccine and critically an available vaccine, much more widely than we could and should has been a major blunder in our vaccination rollout.

 

[Flying mermaid]

And the 90 year old who died was unvaccinated - very sad. Canberra now has nearly 91% of over 70s vaccinated - they really just need to do it!

 

[dajop]

And full crowds of vaccinated people at Wimbledon while we were forced to cancel the Melbourne F1 GP and Phillip Island.

Thats not to say right now there aren’t crowds at sporting events in Australia. Until the last couple of months some big crowds even a crowd of 78.000 at the MCG late April.

Wimbledon only got to it’s full capacity, 15,000 for the finals.

I don’t think the GP was cancelled out of concern around having crowds. More the problem of bringing crew straight from Brazil without quarantining, yet at the same time being extremely harsh for ordinary people returning from overseas. Of course if vaccinations were expected to be at similar levels to where the UK is at now it might be different.

Even Bob Hawke or John Howard at the peak of their popularity would have found it a difficult sell a few days after cutting the number of arrivals to just 3000 to say “yeh we’re fine with bringing in a thousand or more people straight from Brazil without quarantining. “.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Thats not to say right now there aren’t crowds at sporting events in Australia. Until the last couple of months some big crowds even a crowd of 78.000 at the MCG late April.

Wimbledon only got to it’s full capacity, 15,000 for the finals.

I don’t think the GP was cancelled out of concern around having crowds. More the problem of bringing crew straight from Brazil without quarantining, yet at the same time being extremely harsh for ordinary people returning from overseas. Of course if vaccinations were expected to be at similar levels to where the UK is at now it might be different.

Even Bob Hawke or John Howard at the peak of their popularity would have found it a difficult sell a few days after cutting the number of arrivals to just 3000 to say “yeh we’re fine with bringing in a thousand or more people straight from Brazil without quarantining. “.

I don’t follow sport so hadn’t picked up on that - who in their right mind would bring thousands in from anywhere without quarantining? Are they supposed to be in some bubble so they had pre-quarantined? We know how well that works!