Peta Credlin: The point of getting the Covid vaccine is to protect the aged

Australia’s march towards herd vaccination is moving slowly with many elderly people worried about Astra Zeneca. So why can’t they get Pfizer, asks Peta Credlin.

Compared to the UK and the US, with less than 15 per cent of Australians so far with their first jab, our vaccine roll out is hardly racing ahead.

Sure, we haven’t had the deaths of other countries, so there’s not the same fear factor to drive vaccination rates here.

And with borders likely to remain shut for at least another year, where’s the positive incentive to get jabbed?  

Still, general vaccination with resultant herd immunity is the only way we will ever get back to normal so this remains the Australia’s greatest challenge and biggest risk.

At the current rate of about 60,000 a day, it will take another nine months to get the rest of the adult population vaccinated.

Part of the problem is the usual confusion between the Commonwealth and the states, whose (understandable) demand for the first jabs for their frontline health staff meant a scarcity for the GP surgeries where the public usually get their vaccinations.

Many are worried about the Astra Zeneca vaccine despite the risk being within health standard protocols. Picture: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Then there’s the issue of vaccine hesitancy.

With 18 cases of serious blood clots from 1.8 million Astra-Zeneca jabs so far, the risk is well within standard health protocols but that’s still been enough to worry people who aren’t especially scared of COVID itself.

A recent Essential poll showed that even among those aged over 50, for whom only AZ is available, only 46 per cent were willing to be vaccinated.

Last week, the government managed to secure extra supplies of the Moderna vaccine (which, like Pfizer is based on gene technology rather than a deactivated virus like AZ) but these won’t arrive until late in the year.

In the meantime, while Pfizer is reserved for young people, older people whose poor health makes them nervous about any risk remain unvaccinated.

Given that age and frailty are the main factors in COVID deaths, why not make Pfizer an option now for older people whose hesitancy is about AZ rather than getting jabbed?

We started bringing people home from India yesterday, we have millions of older Australians unprotected, yet we’re rolling out Pfizer to healthy young people; it just doesn’t make sense.