South Australians cautiously optimistic about COVID-19 vaccine, research reveals

SA Health-commissioned research has revealed the overall feeling towards the COVID-19 vaccine rollout – and also the anxiety felt by our health workers.

South Australians are cautiously positive about new coronavirus vaccines, but their concern over side-effects was the biggest public worry, official research has found.

In a rare insight, SA Health-commissioned researchers also laid bare widespread anxiety and “stigma” among the state’s heroic frontline hospital, medi-hotel and borders workers.

A prevailing view among respondents was having to live with COVID amid fears of new clusters, managing it like the flu, being tired from the mental drain but realistic about life not being “normal” soon.

They also found knowledge and information about vaccines “very low”, including on numbers and effectiveness.

Long-term side-effect fear was the biggest barrier to convincing vaccine sceptics amid a widespread belief it was not an “overnight cure”, according to their report, which will help inform SA Health’s vaccination rollout and public policies.

“The majority of people are cautiously positive towards the vaccine. They will get the jab but have questions,” it found.

“Worry over side-effects is the biggest barrier to getting the vaccine.”

The report says: “People believe that it’s impossible to know what the longer-term side-effects are for a vaccine that is so new.”

As SA’s top public doctor insisted vaccines were safe and urged everyone to get vaccinated when eligible, Health Minister Stephen Wade will today announce every public hospital will distribute jabs.

More than 60,000 frontline workers will start receiving virus jabs later this month as part of a national rollout.

The ambitious program aims to have every SA resident offered a shot by Christmas.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said the rollout would take time and while people “still have many questions”, the public “should have confidence in the vaccination program”.

She said getting vaccinated was the next thing everyone must do to protect SA, along with good hygiene, social distancing, testing and staying home while sick.

“However, a safe and effective vaccine is only one part of keeping the community safe and healthy. It won’t be the silver bullet,” she said.

“We know that COVID-19 will be here for a long time. For us all to live more freely, I urge all South Australians to put out their arm to get vaccinated when it’s their turn.”

Medical staff and police prepare to test returned overseas travellers for Covid-19 at Peppers Hotel in Waymouth St, in November 2020. Photo: Brenton Edwards

More than 25,000 Victorian travellers to South Australia are being tracked down as authorities scramble to contain the growing Melbourne Airport COVID cluster that has plunged the state into a five-day lockdown.

SA Health contact tracers are attempting to locate travellers who arrived from Victoria last Sunday, their families and other close contacts.

Travellers, including thousands of airline passengers who have flown into Adelaide Airport on almost 50 flights via Tullamarine Airport over the past week, were to be quizzed if they had visited hotspot exposure sites.

A locally acquired coronavirus case reported by Victoria’s health authorities yesterday has been linked back to the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn outbreak, bringing the cluster to 14 cases.

Premier Daniel Andrews said 11 of the 12 staff from Brunetti Cafe at Tullamarine’s Terminal 4, where an employee worked while he was infectious, had tested negative, which was “positive news”.

“That is very significant given that they were at the highest risk of exposure given their proximity to the affected co-worker,” he said.

But efforts to cut off a growing coronavirus cluster have been dealt a blow after a series of contact-tracing bungles were exposed.

It can be revealed three significant issues across state and federal jurisdictions emerged the day after Victoria was plunged into the latest lockdown.

As authorities rush to close any gaps in the net after COVID-19 crept out of hotel quarantine again, those affected by the bungles have spoken up in the hope flaws can be fixed. They include:

A RELATIVE of a hotel quarantine worker who was told to stay in isolation due to incorrect contact details;

A PATIENT in intensive care from the Holiday Inn cluster who was contacted by contact tracers nine days after he went through the process, and;

HUNDREDS of airline passengers who were incorrectly sent text messages telling them to isolate.

Federal chief medical officer Paul Kelly yesterday said he had declared Melbourne a hotspot and was providing assistance to the Victorian Government with various issues including contact tracing.

He defended the state’s hotel quarantine system, saying the Federal Government had “full confidence”.

“These are complex systems and I have full confidence in the Victorian set-up (of) quarantine,” Mr Kelly said.

“They have run a very good quarantine system. As, indeed, all of the other states and territories are doing it in their ways.”

The snap lockdown has landed a billion-dollar blow on Victoria’s already battered economy, with restaurants set to lose $100m and florists $36m.

Retail had taken a hit “in the hundreds of millions of dollars”, while the state’s powerhouse building and construction sector had been brought to a standstill, sector bosses say.

Some restaurants and function venues lost upwards of $100,000 this weekend, with lucrative Valentine’s Day bookings and weddings cancelled.

The once-bustling city resembled a ghost town yesterday – and the Australian Open continued without any crowds.

The government said it hoped to ease the lockdown on Wednesday.