V- Day close as rollout speeds up
‘ General approval’ for Pfizer drug
COVID- 19 vaccinations will start by early March — at least a fortnight sooner than previously expected — and could even begin in February.
As business leaders and medical experts call for the jabs program to be rolled out as soon as possible, it can be revealed the Pfizer shot will be offered to Australians under the first “general approval” in the world.
Priority will be given to people in residential aged care along with health, hotel quarantine and border workers, and those in patient transport.
In an exclusive interview, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the national rollout was likely to be completed by October, compared to an official forecast just last month that it would take until December.
Mr Hunt said up to 80,000 doses a week of the Pfizer jab are set to arrive in Australia each week from later this month, after the Therapeutic Goods Administration grants provisional registration. These would be checked for sterility, tampering and contamination.
“It now looks like early March will be possible for the Pfizer rollout and that’s still with a cautious time frame,” Mr Hunt said.
“We will continue to review the medical advice. In the same way that advice has allowed us to bring forward the time from the first half of the year to late March and now early March, we will be guided by the medical advice.
“Not to do so would be utterly irresponsible and would risk the health of Australians.”
AstraZeneca’s vaccine is anticipated to be in use by the end of March. The new forecast for an October completion is due to both the swifter start and a change to the range of shots set to be used. Originally, this was expected to include a CSLUniversity of Queensland vaccine but it was abandoned last month after false positives for HIV in test results.
That led Mr Hunt to use clauses in purchase agreements to add an extra 20 million AstraZeneca jabs and 11 million from Novavax.
“That brought forward our completion date because University of Queensland was arriving later,” Mr Hunt said.
Eighty per cent of adults are willing to be inoculated against coronavirus, according to research done for the government, which is far higher than the 60 per cent rate required to achieve ‘ herd immunity’ of the population.
The research found one of the biggest causes for hesitancy was worries around proper approvals and the cutting of corners. An emergency rollout was possible under biosecurity powers, but only to avoid catastrophic rates of death, which wasn’t happening, Mr Hunt said.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the pandemic had cost the Australian economy up to $ 350bn leaving a giant debt for future generations, warning: “Delaying the vaccine runs the risk there could be another outbreak that would see borders closed and set back the recovery further.”
Mr Oliver said border closures could cost Australia about $ 20bn a month. “We could argue that three weeks ago we were in a bubble and could sit back, wait and watch the world. But the recent outbreaks have shown how fragile that bubble is — borders have closed and the risk of lockdowns have increased making delaying the vaccine a bigger cost to the economy.”
Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said: “A vaccine is critically important to level the playing field, give people certainty and restore confidence in the process of travel.”
She said the pandemic was costing the industry $ 10bn a month but as domestic travel began again in November tourism operators were looking at a $ 5.5bn payday from Christmas to January 11.
IT NOW LOOKS LIKE EARLY MARCH WILL BE POSSIBLE FOR THE PFIZER ROLLOUT AND THAT’S STILL WITH A CAUTIOUS TIME FRAME GREG HUNT