There will be a long wait for Pzifer though in large scale numbers. August/September I am talking about once the other big nations slow their supply.
The government initially bought 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. It was to be delivered at a million doses a month from February
Last I heard it was only 300000 doses a month. So definitely not enough for everyone under 50.
Incorrect on the number of Pfizer doses arriving per month. The first two weeks alone added up to 308,000 doses. March saw over 700,000 flown in.
The only delay is due to the Federal Govt's making - diversification did not occur to the powers that be.
On March 7th, 2021 NZ signed a contract with Pfizer to buy another 8.5m doses to start arriving from late April. There was nothing stopping the Australian Govt buying more. Both Pfizer & Moderna are close to finishing the ramping up of additional monthly production of around 50 million doses - most of which have yet to be contracted.
From Pfizer/BioNTech alone:
31-Mar-2021 By Rachel Arthur
Pfizer and BioNTech expect to expand COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to up to 2.5 billion doses by the end of 2021, thanks to the optimization of production processes and the recent initiation of production in Marburg, Germany.
https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2021/03/31/Pfizer-and-BioNTech-ramp-up-COVID-19-vaccine-production-to-2.5-billion-doses
To date Pfizer & BioNTech have only signed orders for 1.4 billion doses but expect to face demand for at least another 600 million deliveries in 2021.
So the NZ Govt acted before this was widely reported - signing their deal by March 7th.
The New Zealand government has changed lanes on its COVID-19 vaccine supply deal, snapping up millions of Pfizer doses after it was proven to be more effective.
On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced it had purchased an additional 8.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, all arriving this year.
"This brings our total Pfizer order to 10 million doses or enough for five million people to get the two shots needed to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19," Ms Ardern said.
New Zealand previously announced pre-purchase orders for 14 million courses from Janssen, AstraZeneca and Novavax to supply vaccine.
Ms Ardern said the government had put those on ice.
So the NZ Govt reassessed the situation and acted. Even prior to tonight's developments in Australia - NZ will have completed its entire country-wide vaccination program (for all age groups not just adults) by the end of 2021.
Compare with the shambles of the Federal Govt who:
- Initially claimed to have contracted multiple vaccine suppliers but the vaccine suppliers publicly refuted those claims & stated that the Australian Govt had merely sent letters of intent to discuss contracting.
- Put nearly 100% of the vaccine eggs in the hoped for success of the University of Qld vaccine development using the HIV vector - subsequently abandoned due to providing false positives for HIV presence. As a result massively increased its 'intentions to buy' Novavax which is still in its early Phase III trials & first expected shipments if all goes 100% likely to be in the Dec Qtr.
So at that stage Australia had zero contracted vaccines (if successfully developed) vs NZ having signed up 3.
Subsequently
September 7, 2020: Contracts signed for CSL to produce 50 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne (to replace failed University of Queensland hoped for production)
September 9: Contract signed with AstraZeneca for 3.8 million doses to be delivered to Australia in January and February from offshore
November 5: Contract signed with Pfizer for 10 million doses from overseas
January 17, 2021: Supply issues force AstraZeneca to
revise offshore delivery plan to 1.2 million doses
January 29: European Commission puts in place controls requiring member states to authorise the export of vaccine supplies outside of Europe
Early February: AstraZeneca applies for release of 500,000 doses manufactured in Italy
February 4: Contract signed with Pfizer for another 10 million doses from overseas
February 15: 142,000 Pfizer doses arrive from overseas
February 19: Health Minister Greg Hunt calls European counterpart to lobby for AstraZeneca doses to be released
February 20: AstraZeneca advised by EC to withdraw application and submit revised application for 250,000 doses. EC president Ursula von der Leyen tells Prime Minister Scott Morrison that 500,000 doses would not be approved
February 22: 166,000 Pfizer doses arrive from overseas. Deliveries continue each week
February 27: Italy recommends the EC deny export of 250,000 doses to Australia
February 28: 300,000 AstraZeneca doses arrive, but from outside of Europe
March 3: Export of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses from Europe to Australia is denied. Hunt calls European counterpart to advocate for release
Early March: Another 400,000 AstraZeneca doses land in Australia from a country outside of Europe
March 15: Hunt writes to European counterpart to seek review of export denial
March 17: Morrison asks von der Leyen for one million AstraZeneca doses to be released to help Papua New Guinea. PM still has not received a response
March 22: Hunt asks AstraZeneca to resubmit its export application to the EC
March 24: CSL releases 830,000 AstraZeneca doses made in Melbourne, with another 2.5 million awaiting final testing and approvals
Late March/early April: Another 470,000 doses released by CSL in Melbourne (released = approved for injection after passing final quality testing)
BTW - the 830,000 AZ doses released to the Federal Govt on March 24th mostly remain undelivered despite being available for injection for 14 days now.
Yet, after the offshore supply issues with AZ announced on January 17th just 1,200,000 doses would be coming from overseas - the Federal Govt shifted the 4 million doses injected from March 31st to early April....
Every week since Feb 15th there have been at least 135,000 Pfizer doses arriving in Australia on a certain B777 flight. Most weekly deliveries have been between 144,000 & 166,000 doses.
Yet the Federal Govt has failed to provide the states with sufficient doses to vaccinate all Priority 1A - Border/Quarantine workers nor Covid facing hospital staff even their first shot which would have only needed the first 5 weeks of deliveries to provide enough all to receive both their first and second shots ended on Easter Monday.
All border/hotel quarantine staff could have been done by the middle of March with the Pfizer doses received.
Many 5th or 6th Yr Med students working alongside the Priority 1A hospital staff have not been vaccinated either.
This morning an email was sent out telling all 5th & 6th Yr Med students in NSW (many of whom were already supposed to have received Pfizer due to being in potential CV facing areas on their current rotations but have not) to contact their local GPs to get AZ instead - to be done by next week! It was to be organised by COB today. Needless to say one very concerned medical student may have forgotten to organise it today....
"
although we do realise that many students who are undertaking ‘Category 1a’ placements might not yet have been vaccinated. This issue is not specific only to medical students, but also applies to many JMOs and other doctors working in hospitals who have not been vaccinated during the ‘1a phase’."
I wonder if Greg Hunt has been on the phone to Pfizer seeing if any of the 600 million or so doses that are still available for 2021 delivery - remain uncontracted?
www.theage.com.au
www.abc.net.au
www.crikey.com.au
violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org
