Vaccine ‘100pc effective’
THE Novavax vaccine purchased by Australia is 100 per cent effective at preventing severe COVID-19, the latest clinical trial results show.
The shot is 96.4 per cent effective against mild and moderate cases, a new analysis shows, but is only 55.4 per cent effective against the new South African variant. Australia has purchased 51 million doses of the vaccine that is still in clinical trials and it is hoped it might be available as a third vaccine option later this year.
The good news comes as doctors express concern about online medical booking service HealthEngine winning a contract to run the federal government’s national COVID-19 vaccine appointment booking system. From later this month patients will be able to use the company’s medical booking system as one of multiple ways of making an appointment with their GP for a COVID-19 vaccine.
In August last year the Federal Court fined the company $2.9m for sharing patients’ personal information to private health insurance brokers and publishing misleading patient reviews and ratings.
HealthEngine also admitted that between March 31, 2015 and March 1, 2018, it did not publish around 17,000 reviews and edited around 3000 reviews to remove negative aspects, or to embellish them.
The government has been grilled in a Senate inquiry into COVID-19 about why it had given the company the contract.
Associate Secretary of the
Department of Health Caroline Edwards defended the decision and said the department was aware of the fines.
The service had improved its operations since 2018, she claimed.
“Following ACCC’s recommendations HealthEngine has strengthened its privacy and security processes and authentications,” she told the Senate.
The company would get no information on patients’ medical conditions, only the limited personal information required to book a vaccination appointment, she said.
Dr Rob Hosking, chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners technology committee, told industry newsletter newsGP he was “surprised” by the decision and had raised concerns over the plan.
OLYMPIC swimmer turned television presenter Giaan Rooney has discovered the beauty of balance.
These days the mum to Zander, 7, and Alexa, 3, prefers “incidental exercise” to the gruelling regimen of a professional athlete and has been relishing learning the rural ropes on her Northern NSW macadamia farm.
So when retailer Harris Scarfe approached Rooney to create her own activewear line, it was always going to be aimed more at working mums than gym-class heroes.
GR by Giaan Rooney launched this week, with pieces designed to transition from school drop-off to coffee catch-ups.
“Women don’t just multi-task we maxi-task and put so much into every day,” she said.
“Putting (activewear) on in the morning is half the battle when it comes to moving more.”
Rooney has taken the same practical approach to her foray into farming with husband Sam Levett.
“We are about to do our first harvest and we’re absolutely loving it,” she said.
“The other day we relocated a big python and there’s honey bees on the property so we’ve been checking the hives.
“The kids have been spoiled with the beach but the beauty of the Gold Coast is that this other world is less than an hour-and-a-half away.”