COVAX domination: Twomey

WITH more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines (COVAX) administered through community pharmacies in Australia, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, believes it is a service the sector will dominate in years to come.

Speaking during a special pharmacy industry webinar hosted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia last night (PD 08 Oct), Twomey said the sector had “completely overthought” the COVAX rollout.

“They’re not that different to administering a flu vaccine,” the Guild President said.

“Sure, we have to have a longer conversation with people because we’ve botched up the messaging as a country, but we have completely overthought how complicated administering a COVAX is.

“I know, as we passed the one million mark…it’s a sector we will dominate in the future.

“What you’ll find throughout the course of 2022 and beyond, [is] the demand for the vaccine won’t be as lumpy, it’ll be smoother and over the course of many months - so the mad rush that we saw in the last 12 weeks will be spread over a longer period of time.

“[That] should make it easier to absorb into our business as usual functions, but we need to systemise it,” he said.

While Twomey told attendees at the webinar that he was confident that community pharmacy would be integral to the COVAX rollout going forward, he raised concerns about the Federal Department of Health’s communications surrounding booster shots.

“Unfortunately the communication out of the Department of Health in the last week has been just as clear and concise as their communication was in the initial rollout,” he said.

“You can see that the good Lieutenant-General [John Frewen] has handed it back to the Health Department, because we’re ballsing it up all over again.”