Strategy to track vaccine supply
AUSTRALIANS illegally buying or selling COVID-19 vaccines on the black market face jail and fines of more than $11m as the government revealed who would be getting the first doses and how they would be kept secure.
Frontline health and agedcare workers, quarantine staff and disability workers will be the first in line for the vaccines under a roll out strategy endorsed by national cabinet.
It comes as the nation’s medicines watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and Australian Border Force said they had “tough powers in place to prevent and detect the illegal import and supply of vaccines ”.
Civil penalties for buying and selling the products range from a maximum of $1,110,000 for an individual to $11,100,000 for a corporation.
Criminal penalties can range up to five years in jail or fines of $888,000 for each breach, theTGA said.
The federal government and pharmaceutical companies are ramping up a major security effort to safeguard vaccine supply and protect against thieves. The TGA said it was engaging software and data specialists for the task, which would use sophisticated tracking and tracing technology.
This will ensure vaccines “can be tracked at every stage in their journey, from receipt from the manufacturer through to post-immunisation monitoring ,” theTGA said.
The Australian government also plans to record every vaccine dose in a patient’s personal immunisation record so it can track each batch.
The measures will not just guard against theft and potential bribery of medical professionals, but also ensure people can be contacted if it is later found the vaccines have adverseoutcomes.
People who receive the vaccine will be sent a text message two days after they receive a vaccine asking them to report any adverse events, acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told the Senate.
Once vaccine doses are delivered to a vaccination site, states and territories will take responsibility for the physical safety and appropriate storage and handling of those doses.