Jeannette Young fires back at questions over vaccine advice

Dr Jeannette Young has fired back at a room of journalists as she faced a chaotic press conference where her comments about the AstraZeneca vaccine were put under the microscope.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young had denied she went too far in her comments about the AstraZeneca jab – insisting she was putting out the facts.

The state’s top doctor on Wednesday declared she did not want under 40s getting the AstraZeneca vaccine, pointing to their increased risk of getting a “rare” clotting syndrome.

Under intense questioning on the issue this morning, Dr Young said “this is getting absolutely silly”, adding that she had been giving Queenslanders “the best advice I can possibly give them” for 18 months.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended Dr Young, saying she was “one of the most respected health professionals in this country”.

Dr Young today maintained that those aged 60 years or older should get AstraZeneca, while those under the age of 60 should schedule to get Pfizer.

Dr Jeannette Young has repeated her concerns about younger people getting vaccinated with AstraZeneca. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“I’m a doctor. I’ve been involved in Australia’s vaccination program now for 16 years. I have got the vaccination rate here for our little ones – up to five years old – up to 95 per cent,” Dr Young said.

“I am on the record as supporting vaccination. But I want the right vaccine to go to the right person.”

Dr Young said it was the “truth” that there was a risk that someone who received AstraZeneca could die from a “rare” blood clots – and that “the younger you are, the more likely it is it will happen”.

“That’s why ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) set the upper age at 60,” she said.

“Because if you look at the data, the risk significantly decreases over the age of 60.

“But the younger you are, the higher the risk.”

Dr Young said people needed to work out where they wanted to get their advice from.

“So I have put my advice out there very, very clearly. Now people need to work out where they want to get advice from,” she said.

“People of course can go and get their own advice. They can get it from wherever they wish to get it.

“But my advice is very, very clear.”

Her comments come after National Cabinet agreed to an indemnity scheme for GPs who administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to under 60s.

But Wednesday’s comments by Dr Young were also described as “scaremongering” by Dr Charlotte Hespe from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

“She’s putting it out there and saying ‘well they can’t have their own choice, I’m making a choice for them’,” Dr Hespe told 2GB Wednesday.

“You need to have that conversation with that 18-year-old and realistically saying what is it that would make you decide that you felt that for you your risk was better to go ahead with AstraZeneca.

“I can’t make that choice for them. But what I can do is make sure they have every bit of evidence and information to make that informed choice from.”

Dr Young on Wednesday said she was not in a position to ask fit, young and healthy people to “put their health on the line” in getting the jab that could “significantly harm” them, insisting they were at increased risk of a “rare” clotting syndrome.

“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die,” she said at the time.

“We’ve had very few deaths due to Covid-19 in Australia in people under the age of 50.

“Wouldn’t it be terrible that our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic died because of the vaccine?”