The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun

[trevella]

I hear on ABC radio that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout in the US has been paused due to safety concerns.

Please step forward all those in this thread who have berated the federal government for not contracting for the supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A lesson, perhaps. When you have trials involving tens of thousands of people, as is normal, they won’t pick up the side-effects which involve one or two people per million doses. Another lesson: hindsight is a wonderful thing, as is throwing rocks from the sidelines.

Wait long enough and by that criterion *no* vaccine will be acceptable.

If the US pause lasts more than a few days it will end up being a net killer.

But don’t let that get in the way of taking a cheap shot.

I see below that you’re surprised to learn that the vaccines stop people getting COVID. LOL.

 

[jonboixxx]

The vaccines do prevent people from getting covid

SIREN study also seems to be suggesting that. Love to see some more studies on transmission, once more data is compiled.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wait long enough and by that criterion *no* vaccine will be acceptable.

None? Not any? Golly. Does your expertise extend to when that might happen?

I see below that you’re surprised to learn that the vaccines stop people getting COVID. LOL.

Okay you can be smug and LOL if you like. Frankly I haven’t been obsessing over Covid or the vaccines as much as many here, perhaps including yourself, by the sound of it. I’m lucky to be in a community/ state where there hasn’t been community transmission for, I don’t know, over six months and is described as one of the safest communities in the world. So you might forgive me if I don’t follow the minutiae of technical developments

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Cannot see Novavax being the answer here.

Out of interest why? Results to date for effectiveness and lack of negative side-effects would seem promising.

It seems set to be rolled out in the USA and UK before here in Australia, just as Pfizer and AZ were.

So before it is used here ( ignoring the Australian trials) for general vaccinations it will have been used overseas for that purpose.

 

[Gremlin]

I hear on ABC radio that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout in the US has been paused due to safety concerns.

Please step forward all those in this thread who have berated the federal government for not contracting for the supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A lesson, perhaps. When you have trials involving tens of thousands of people, as is normal, they won’t pick up the side-effects which involve one or two people per million doses. Another lesson: hindsight is a wonderful thing, as is throwing rocks from the sidelines.

I've not been critical of contracting specific vaccines, but I have been critical of the spread of vaccines the Government has contracted. Australia has contracted for four, one of which hasn't made it to Phase III Trials. In contrast, the US has six vaccines contracted, the EU has six, Canada has seven, the UK has eight.

There was always the risk that some of those vaccines would be developed faster than others. There was always going to be the risk of vaccine failure. There was always going to be supply constraints. There was always going to be differences in efficacies and effectiveness. There was always going to be side-effects. Each of these constrains the ability to get us back to normal. Whilst the specifics may not have been known, the potential for different timelines, failure, supply issues, efficacy and effectiveness variations and side-effects were and are well known. They factored into the decisions made by other first-world governments around the world.

Australia spent $6.3bn this FY on those four contracted vaccines. Maybe they were the cheapest options, we don't know. Maybe the cost to get another 2 to 4 vaccines might be as high as $15bn. So perhaps we're talking $20bn and we'd have a full range of options rather than this rollout non-plan. The cost would be less than 1 month's worth of lost revenue to our Tourism and Education sectors alone from border closures. That's the cost of the insurance policy that our government chose not to buy and, as a result, our borders will remain closed for much, much longer.

 

[jonboixxx]

Australia spent $6.3bn this FY on those four contracted vaccines. Maybe they were the cheapest options, we don't know. Maybe the cost to get another 2 to 4 vaccines might be as high as $15bn. So perhaps we're talking $20bn and we'd have a full range of options rather than this rollout non-plan.

Indicative prices are here. Israel, for one, paid way above this for early and guaranteed access.

 

[burmans]

Finally an admission by our government the rollout isn’t fast enough. Probably when News papers and Gladys started getting into them they finally realised spin wouldn’t suffice!

 

[Pushka]

This isn’t the case. The vaccines do prevent people from getting covid and increasing real life data from Israel etc that they prevent transmission.

Please do communicate that to SA Health Minister who doesn’t appear to understand that and why he’s so blase about 15% of SA quarantine people not being vaccinated.

 

[RooFlyer]

Finally an admission by our government the rollout isn’t fast enough. Probably when News papers and Gladys started getting into them they finally realised spin wouldn’t suffice!

Have they also come clean and admitted that 3/4of the contracted Pfizer dosages simply haven’t arrived? Have they confessed that that might have something to do with the slower than planned roll out?

When they admit those things, then maybe we will have the full story.

 

[Pushka]

Have they also come clean and admitted that 3/4of the contracted Pfizer dosages simply haven’t arrived? Have they confessed that that might have something to do with the slower than planned roll out?

When they admit those things, then maybe we will have the full story.

It isn’t always about supply. SA has plenty of supply. We just aren’t utilizing it. That has been admitted.

 

[OZDUCK]

And, to no-ones surprise, deliveries of the Novavax vaccine will be delayed - to everyone.

Vaccine rollout suffers another blow as supply shortages push back Novavax production

Novavax pushes back the timeline for hitting its production target of 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses per month due to supply shortages, dealing another blow to the federal government's rollout plans.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Toula92122]

Doesn't really matter because no one is going to be lining up to get any vaccination as we've been told not to bother as no one is going anywhere.

 

[Flying mermaid]

The logic is a bit flawed though because with no covid in the community, the 12 week wait is manageable for these oldies. Better to ensure the staff working there (who are out in the community) are vaccinated first and fast, as they are the way the virus has got into aged care homes.

The government has much explaining to do as to why 1a isnt complete and why 1B are allowed to queue jump in front of 1a medical workers who actually work with Covid positives, who should have been top of 1a.

The problem is if the virus did get loose (as it did in Victoria) and got into old ages homes, they would die in their hundreds, as they did before. So protecting them as fast as possible so they can see family seems a more compassionate way to go.

I think the government did the right thing in starting 1b. 1a is delivered by private contractors and state health. 1b by the GPs. 1b didn’t start until the locally produced vaccine was available and that was no longer a limiting factor. GPs can’t administer Pfizer. Makes no sense to have the GPs siting on their hands waiting to start 1b when the two efforts could happen in parallel. Otherwise it’s going to take years. Plenty of very vulnerable people in 1b. I know a lovely lady who is 88, but comes under 1b as she chooses to stay in her own home.

maybe the state health systems should move a bit faster to vaccinate medical workers - a range of 74% to 50% of vaccine utilised.....

 

[jakeseven7]

GPs can’t administer Pfizer.

Yet.... wait for it

 

[mviy]

I know a lovely lady who is 88, but comes under 1b as she chooses to stay in her own home.

I know some people in their 90s that are still living at home and thus are in 1B.

 

[Lynda2475]

I think the government did the right thing in starting 1b. 1a is delivered by private contractors and state health. 1b by the GPs. 1b didn’t start until the locally produced vaccine was available and that was no longer a limiting factor. GPs can’t administer Pfizer. Makes no sense to have the GPs siting on their hands waiting to start 1b when the two efforts could happen in parallel. Otherwise it’s going to take years. Plenty of very vulnerable people in 1b. I know a lovely lady who is 88, but comes under 1b as she chooses to stay in her own home.

maybe the state health systems should move a bit faster to vaccinate medical workers - a range of 74% to 50% of vaccine utilised.....

This isn't entirely correct . Some of 1b is being done by GPs with AZ - this is mainly for the over 70s and younger individuals with existing health issues. However, the majority of frontline workers (police, emergency services, hospital staff who didn't fall into 1A) are getting their 1B shots administered by the states in hospitals and vaccination hubs, and that 1b includes Pfizer not just AZ.

My points were that:

1. No Pfizer should have been allocated to any 1B until all workers in 1A had had their 2 Pfizer shots. I have posted several times about a friend who is a 1A ICU nurse who treats covid patients transferred to hospital from HQ who cant get an appointment for her second Pfizer shot until September, because a bunch of 1B cops and firefighters took all the earlier Pfizer appointments, because 1B started before 1A was finished and there is no process to enable 1A workers to queue jump above 1B (even though there should be).

2. From the moment the advice changed re not giving AZ to under 50s, the plan should have been rejigged to not give Pfizer to any over 50 who hasn't had their first shot yet and move them to AZ so more Pfizer is available for the 1Bs under 50 (but again not until all workers in 1A are done).

What I suggested would not have affected GPs starting with AZ (by the way some GPs got their first doses from the overseas supplied stock, not just locally produced, week one of 1B started before the locally produced 1B stock was released).

 

[Flying mermaid]

This isn't entirely correct . Some of 1b is being done by GPs with AZ - this is mainly for the over 70s and younger individuals with existing health issues. However, the majority of frontline workers (police, emergency services, hospital staff who didn't fall into 1A) are getting their 1B shots administered by the states in hospitals and vaccination hubs, and that 1b includes Pfizer not just AZ.

My points were that:

1. No Pfizer should have been allocated to any 1B until all workers in 1A had had their 2 Pfizer shots. I have posted several times about a friend who is a 1A ICU nurse who treats covid patients transferred to hospital from HQ who cant get an appointment for her second Pfizer shot until September, because a bunch of 1B cops and firefighters took all the earlier Pfizer appointments, because 1B started before 1A was finished and there is no process to enable 1A workers to queue jump above 1B (even though there should be).

2. From the moment the advice changed re not giving AZ to under 50s, the plan should have been rejigged to not give Pfizer to any over 50 who hasn't had their first shot yet and move them to AZ so more Pfizer is available for the 1Bs under 50 (but again not until all workers in 1A are done).

What I suggested would not have affected GPs starting with AZ (by the way some GPs got their first doses from the overseas supplied stock, not just locally produced, week one of 1B started before the locally produced 1B stock was released).

No doubt it isn’t entirely correct - there are lots of variables. Nevertheless my major point is that it would be stupid to single thread with 1a when all GPs and all the vaccine can be utilised to vaccinate as many of the vulnerable people as possible in both 1a and 1b. Not being an epidemiologist, I prefer not to be a pundit from the sidelines and leave it to the medical advisory panel to direct this......

 

[Pushka]

No Pfizer should have been allocated to any 1B until all workers in 1A had had their 2 Pfizer shots

There are people in 1b that should not be given AZ. I spoke to neighbour just yesterday whom I knew had Lupus. He had also had a stroke. When he talked further he apparently also suffers from Thrombocytopenia and after treatment for that, a week later (maybe correlation not causation) he had a stroke.

Anyway, Morrison spoke today of large vaccination centres for AZ for over 50’s by late June. He commented that supply of AZ was no longer an issue.

Greg Hunt on the other hand killed off younger people’s (<70) desire to even bother getting it if travel will not change.

 

[Flying mermaid]

There are people in 1b that should not be given AZ. I spoke to neighbour just yesterday whom I knew had Lupus. He had also had a stroke. When he talked further he apparently also suffers from Thrombocytopenia and after treatment for that, a week later (maybe correlation not causation) he had a stroke.

And I have a friend who went along for her AZ shot and they wouldn’t give it to her and said she had to have Pfizer as she had had an anaphylactic reaction a few years ago to something. Many different medical reasons.

 

[Lynda2475]

There are people in 1b that should not be given AZ. I spoke to neighbour just yesterday whom I knew had Lupus. He had also had a stroke. When he talked further he apparently also suffers from Thrombocytopenia and after treatment for that, a week later (maybe correlation not causation) he had a stroke.

And im not disputing that, Im disputing the timing. No Pfizer should be allocated to 1B until all workers in 1A who need Pfizer have their shots delivered.

And Pfizer earmarked for aged care people who have yet to start being vaccinated in 1A should be redirected to 1B if those 1A people are able to take the less in demand AZ.