The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia has begun

[Matt_01]

My home state QLD is perfect one day, perfecter the next so I guess we could be a good choice

Of course, South Australia would be better but we are focussing on, umm, something else?

I vote for the DPRSA, of course we will want some up front funding from the Commonwealth to help with the build. Also once production has commenced, we:

• will not disclose our progress;
• will not disclose much has been manufactured;
• will not disclose how much is available;
• will shut our borders at a moments notice; and
• will restrict movement into and out of the state.

 

[dajop]

Melbourne and Adelaide both have a history of rolling brownouts and blackouts in hot summers.

Melbourne load shedding tends to be deliberate and directed away from critical infrastructure.

 

[Matt_01]

Prolonged power outages would destroy vaccines but not wipe out people.

Disagree, I was visiting Melbourne in 1998 just after the Longford Gas works explosion. There was limited power in the hotel and we could not chill champagne or wine to an appropriate temperature (both the fridge and the ice machine were non operational), room service could only provide cold meals and some restaurants were not open. That in itself was enough to wipe us out.

 

[Lynda2475]

Yeah I recall having to walk down stairs form 30th floor after power outage took out the lifts in our Melbourne office that year - 3 times within one week.

 

[drron]

Obviously the choice for another vaccine manufacturing would be WA.Young Mark wouldn't let any pesky interstaters in would he.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The main natural disaster that effects Victoria are bushfires, floods and wind. It is not cyclone prone, for example, and whilst it does get occassional tremors, not particularly earthquake prone either.

In terms of Melbourne itself it essentially suffers no real extreme events, when compared to the extreme events of many other parts of Australia..

The first two are manageable through finding a suitable location out of fire and flood risk areas (and probably best not to co-locate with other vaccine production) and third and earthquakes through design of the structures. I'm struggling to think of two pieces of non co-located infrastructure in Victoria that have been affected by natural disasters at the same time - or even by the much more likely industrial accidents/human caused disasters. The last significant piece of infrastructure in the state that was "taken" out - and my memory may be a bit faulty - that I can recall was the Longford Gas Plan in 1998.

On the positive side, the support that is provided by and expertise retained in Melbourne & Monash Universities and the Doherty Institute probably is a huge plus for a Victorian location.

.
With such a facility you also need to look at not just the plant, but the ability of the location to support it with logistics, expert staff, researchers. Technology hubs of various types are commonly used throughout the world.

It just so happens that Melbourne already is a biotech hub. About 40% per cent of Australia’s biomedical researchers live there.
It is one of only 3 cities in the world to have 2 universities ranked in the global top 20 for biomedicine.

Many medical research organisation are based there beyond the Doherty Institute. ie The Florey Institute., Walter & Eliza Hall Institute etc

And mRNA manufacture would just be part of the overall existing biomedical hub in Melbourne. So it would just be building on the foundation of what has been growing for many decades in Melbourne.

To make mRNA manufacturing viable it needs mRNA research and/or existing mRNA partners. There already is much active mRNA Research in Melbourne.

20 SEP 2020​

​

MRFF backs Melbourne-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate​

The Commonwealth Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has invested almost $3 million into new COVID-19 vaccine candidates led out of Melbourne.​

​

The two vaccine candidates were developed by a team of researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), and are providing encouraging results in preclinical testing. This project is also supported by vaccine manufacturer, Seqirus (a CSL company).​

​

University of Melbourne Professor Dale Godfrey, Immunology Theme Leader at the Doherty Institute, said the vaccine approaches were very different to the two Australia-based candidates currently in clinical trials.​

​

“SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is enveloped by proteins that resemble spikes, which enable the virus to attach and enter cells. This attachment is mediated by the tip of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain (RBD). Our vaccine candidates focus specifically on the RBD because if we can block this attachment we can block infection,” Professor Godfrey said.​

​

“The spike protein is viewed as the most important target for antibodies produced by the immune system because most antibodies that neutralise the virus do so by targetting the RBD region of the spike.”​

The two candidates:​

1. RBD protein – represents the tip of the spike in an isolated molecular form to focus the immune response on this critical region of the virus targeted by antibodies that neutralise viral infectivity
2. RBD mRNA – represents the virus genetic sequence that codes for the tip of the spike, which will lead to production of the RBD protein.

Monash University Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology, Professor Colin Pouton said: “Our approach includes messenger RNA technology which should provide a very safe and focussed vaccine with the important ability to rapidly adjust its composition in response to emerging virus mutations - if the virus mutates, a new vaccine can be tested within a few weeks.” ​

​

Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute and a co-investigator on this grant, thanked the Commonwealth Government for their generous support of the vaccine candidates.​

​

“We are very excited about this vaccine approach, which now, thanks to the support of the Commonwealth, will be expedited, hopefully entering Phase 1 human trials quickly,” Professor Lewin said.​

​

https://www.doherty.edu.au/news-events/news/mrff-backs-melbourne-based-covid-19-vaccine-candidate

​

Logistics wise Melbourne also has a 24 hour freight airport (important for emergency situations) and large shipping hub. The plant will need to be an international exporter and so logistics is important. Plus will need to import materials to manufacture with.



So yes you can build a mRNA plant in many parts of Australia, but some locations will make it a lot easier to operate. A long-term view is very important as well as such a facility will require a lot of investment. Melbourne is very suitable when you look at all the criteria required, and so the question really becomes is there a better location from a functional and operational basis?

If a large Pharma partner jumps on board I am sure they will consider such factors along with any government carrots.

 

[OZDUCK]

Obviously the choice for another vaccine manufacturing would be WA.Young Mark wouldn't let any pesky interstaters in would he.

Avoiding the border closure issue, Pfizer actually have a fairly large
research facility here. It was one of the last places I audited before retirement. Unfortunately it is being closed this year because, if I remember correctly, they can make better profits elsewhere.

 

[Pushka]

So I read the Police Officer with blood clots after Pfizer recently had knee surgery and developed DVT after the Pfizer shot. Attended a private hospital (likely where he had surgery) and was released and was already back at work. Timing of it all seems a little unclear but likely completely unrelated. Girlfriend had a knee replacement last November. She too developed DVT. No big deal. Provoked.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Also just for clarity the new Seqirus plant as currently designed is not for Covid. Though yes there is the possibility that Seqirus could add that on or add on mRNA (It has already indicated that it has an open mind on this) or build an additional plant.

It will make a number of products but with flu vaccines being the key one. It will also manufacture the flu vaccines with a new cell based process moving away from the old egg based process.





Current AZ production in Australia is a joint effort of CSL-Behring Australia and Seqirus (at its old existing plant).


The vaccine is being manufactured at two sites in suburban Melbourne. CSL-Behring Australia in Broadmeadows are manufacturing the active raw vaccine material, while the final vaccine doses are being manufactured, vials filled and packaged at Seqirus in Parkville (a CSL company). Quality control testing of the raw material and product is also being carried out in these facilities.

 

[Flying mermaid]

So I read the Police Officer with blood clots after Pfizer recently had knee surgery and developed DVT after the Pfizer shot. Attended a private hospital (likely where he had surgery) and was released and was already back at work. Timing of it all seems a little unclear but likely completely unrelated. Girlfriend had a knee replacement last November. She too developed DVT. No big deal. Provoked.

I was thinking on similar lines. I know two people who died from pulmonary embolisms after operations and lots of people with similar problems that weren’t fatal and then of course DVTs from travel - some of them from car trips. Life is risky, but we don’t stop having operations or travelling.

 

[Lynda2475]

Eldest son of family next door growing up died from a DVT following knee surgery, so id say more common than vaccine reaction. Also the vaccine clotting issue isnt DVT, somi doubt this one will end up being a vaccine case unlike the AZ death.

 

[Pushka]

Eldest son of family next door growing up died from a DVT following knee surgery, so id say more common than vaccine reaction. Also the vaccine clotting issue isnt DVT, somi doubt this one will end up being a vaccine case unlike the AZ death.

Scarey to read about death from DVT (due to surgery). I never really wanted to go down that thought track when I had DVT

 

[Flying mermaid]

Scarey to read about death due to surgery DVT. I never really wanted to go down that thought track when I had mine.

Apart from the risk of things like embolisms as a result of surgery, let’s not get started on anaesthetics. When Dr FM had 4 wisdom teeth removed she elected to have locals rather than a GA. Her dentist said it was really interesting how many doctors did that......As I said always risks in anything you do.....

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Melbourne load shedding tends to be deliberate and directed away from critical infrastructure.

Yes they do. Different clients are treated differently including hospitals.

However, with any business/building the designers/manager will example the consequences of failure whether it be power or other matters.

Power loss at a typical office building is no big deal. You just lose that period. UPS will protect the computers from data loss, and there will be battery back up lighting systems so that people can safely exist the building. If power loss is critical then they will have a more elaborate back up power contingency.

Now for some facilities. ie hospitals that will not be acceptable and so various other back systems will be in place. ie back-up generators, larger UPS and these days also greater use of alternative power such as solar, ground heat-pumps and the like.


With manufacturing likewise. Any business that wants to keep operating will have a suite of systems depending on the sensitivity to profit and their operations.

Those with large cold storage facilities and the like will certainly have planned for interruptions to power supply. This would include having enough insulation and thermal mass to not warm up too quickly as well back-up power.

Melbourne still has lot of manufacturing and the large facilities do not all fall other just because a tree falls over a powerline somewhere, or a substation blows up, or too many people turn on their home AC. etc etc

With the power grid more and more large battery systems are now also being commissioned, such as

Victorian Big Battery

Modernising the state’s electricity grid and boosting the reliability of the power supply. It can store enough energy to power more than one million Victorian homes for 30 minutes.

www.energy.vic.gov.au

and so it it is no longer just hydro that provides "storage" within the power grid to help manage power fluctuations.

 

[RAM]

I have the luxury of watching Australia's rollout unfold from a distance, but I also have a vested interested due to my son's (sport) touring requirements.


This is just so patently dumb I have to wonder what your agenda might be.

Surely if you want to compare annual statistics drawn from a long period (good sample) encompassing various conditions with 4 weeks' (italics yours; also dumb) worth of data or two weeks (even dumber) or whatever, it would make more sense to divide the annual statistics rather than multiplying the more limited ones?

This sort of disinformation is an utter disgrace and may end up killing people.

No agenda - just a dislike of incorrect information distributed as facts instead of spin. That's what can lead to deaths, for example the claim that face masks would provide no community safety - those false claims did lead to deaths.

No disinformation presented in my post - the 'medical experts' were comparing something that had only been going for a short period and invalidly used annual statistics as the comparison - something which in recent days a number of heads of medical faculties have also called out as not valid.

As all the articles & 'experts' aired on radio/TV/internet had been talking about "compared with annual figures" - I converted the figures to annual (but did not do so geometrically which would have been invalid). As the 'experts' are quoting annual periods - I compared like with like.

The relativities or ratios remain the same regardless whether dividing the annual figure (risk of death from XYZ) by 26 or multiplying the 2 weekly figure (for AZ doses that had completed the 20 day period).

You missed the point - at the time AZ's roll out had been going for some weeks not months.

The time period for 'the extremely rare type of clots' after injection is stated to be normally 4 to 20 days after injection. So including any count of AZ injections that had not fulfilled the 20 day period is incorrect - as those people are still at risk. = should not be counted yet.

That reduces the available time period of AZ doses administered.

Equally do you consider it is correct to compare the risk of dying in a fatal car accident against the risk of developing clots from AZ or woudl the valid comparison (adjusted for periodicity) been:

• Risk of dying in a car accident vs risk of dying from rare form of clotting after AZ injection; or
• Risk of being injured in a car accident vs risk of developing rare form of clotting after AZ injections

Yet the experts (possibly not all but the articles seen & reports on TV) did compare risk of death from car accidents against risk of developing clots. In Australia the risk of injuries caused by a motor vehicle is 27x higher than the risk of death.

That certainly changes the relative risks vs the AZ shot does it not than comparing risk of death from motor vehicle accident vs risk of developing clots (& either surviving or dying). Understating the relative risks by a factor of 27 times = disinformation.


The disinformation is coming from the Federal Govt & related experts.

Totally agree as l pointed out in one of my first posts in this thread - the government has been flapping around regarding the rollout and need to be called out on it, even though not many people here agreed with my comments.



I suggested vaccination hubs, open all hours (dayshift and nightshift, even reduced staff for nightshift is better than nothing) and was called out about it in this thread too by some users.

Then l suggested bringing in the defence force (like the USA) to help, which the Government is now going to be implementing.

I think people who aren't struggling or running a small business on the brink don't get it - we need all hands on deck to sort this out, people are going under (job keeper/seeker is now wound back to nothing). If your going to wind back job seeker/keeper, then make the vaccine available ASAP to everyone to get the economy going, 4 million doses available and only 1.4 administrated - thats a joke!

Tourist operators have been hit and another lockdown in QLD will send them to the wall. I think its easy for public servants (Governments) because they still get paid week in/week out regardless of what goes on....

I provided the figures (that I have been posting on AFF) to a number of journalists last week, some sought confirmation of my figures from the Fed Govt who delayed responding until talk of filing a FOI/GIPA request was made on follow-up this week (by at least one journalist early on Monday). That saw some of the information confirmed but the number of each type of vaccine administered has still not been supplied.

Perhaps it would definitively show exactly which part of Phase 1A failed the worst vs the others.

Big questions over who exactly has received the Pfizer doses as the number of Pfizer doses that have arrived in Australia & been cleared for disribution/injection is now 9 deliveries totalling over 1.25m. If all had been administered in the week following the TGA clearance (with half kept back for 3 weeks later) then the first 6 weeks cleared (arrived starting Feb 15th) - would have been sufficient for all Phase 1A recipients to have received their first dose of Pfizer (Dept of Health state the number as 678,000 people) by last Friday, with over 450,000 having also received their 2nd injection.

That is based on the supply received by the Federal Govt & available to go into peoples' arms.

Yet as of last Friday under 400,000 Phase 1A designated had received their first dose and between 50,000 to 80,000 of those are understood to have been AZ not Pfizer. The complete clinical team at one of Sydney's largest public hospitals in possibly the most directly CV facing roles (refered to in an earlier posting) finally got their first injection and it was AZ not Pfizer.

So where exactly have the Pfizer doses gone?

Given that Aged & Diability Care residents were to be all vaccinated by the end of Week 6 or Sunday April 3rd (announced by Greg Hunt on Feb 16th), and totalled just 190,000 people - the private sector companies with responsibility, for all but the few State Govt run facilities, have clearly breached their contracts if the Fed Govt is blameless as the public keep being told?

Add in the Aged & Disability Care workers (fewer than 5% received first injection by last Friday, and of those AZ believed to be the vaccine) numbering 318,000 then something is seriously amiss with the private sector companies.

Mobilising Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine workforce

The Australian Government is securing an additional vaccine workforce and working to deliver essential training to everyone who will administer the vaccinations.

www.health.gov.au

Through our plan, a panel of four providers have been appointed who will be called upon to provide a vaccine workforce to supplement the existing immunisation workforce for specific populations.

The providers are Aspen Medical, Healthcare Australia, International SOS, and Sonic Clinical Services.
and
As vaccines are approved for use in Australia and our vaccination program commences, we are ensuring the workforce is there to administer the vaccines in an efficient manner, particularly to our priority groups including residential aged care, residential disability, and carers.

With a little luck, there may be some equally revealing articles coming out next week.

 

[RAM]

I laughed. Sometimes you just need to lighten things up around here. Even at my own states expense.

Have you any connection with the new (unofficial) SA tourism one-liner getting all that free publicity?

 

[mviy]

The PM is due to speak at 4pm. He's expected to announce changes to the vaccine rollout.

Edit: Make that 4:10pm.

 

[mviy]

Outside of 1A and 1B
3rd May for over 50s - AstraZeneca in Respiratory clinics and state & territories
17th May for over 50s - AstraZeneca at local GPs.

With few sensible exceptions Pfizer limited to under 50s.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Tried to book for Mr FM and I for 8 May at a respiratory clinic, as soon as it was announced, but of course their systems screen us out. Will try daily until it allows us in

 

[mviy]

Pfizer access may be expanded to allow over 50s more broadly to take it late in the year.

This seems to be an admission that we may not reach herd immunity without allowing the elderly to take Pfizer if they refuse to take AstraZeneca.