Dubbo pharmacy delivering AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Despite being “ready to go” since May, Greg Shearing is the first pharmacist in Covid-hit Dubbo to receive desperately needed doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

After months of planning and patiently waiting, Dubbo’s Priceline Pharmacy owner Greg Shearing is now doing what he was ready to do months ago.

He’s getting AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines into arms and it’s younger people desperate to live more freely who are making the majority of bookings.

A box containing 100 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at Priceline Pharmacy in Dubbo. Picture: Ryan Young

“These are people that just want to get vaccinated, they understand the science, the understand this is the only way out of this mess,” Mr Shearing said.

“They’re sick of not being able to get something, they’re concerned for themselves, their families and their community.

“They understand that AstraZeneca is a good vaccine, it is a safe vaccine, it is a very effective vaccine.”

Priceline Pharmacy was the first in Dubbo to receive the vaccines, with 300 delivered on Tuesday.

Priceline pharmacy Dubbo owner and pharmacist in charge Greg Shearing with his first supply of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. Picture: Ryan Young

Other pharmacies who have signed up to administer AstraZeneca jabs are expected to receive their orders in coming days.

“We were approved in May and we’ve been waiting for stock since then,” Mr Shearing said.

“I had a couple of staff who had been hanging out to either complete their vaccination cycle or commence so they were our first ones to be vaccinated here which was good because we had a new booking platform to learn as well so it was good to have that to practice on.

“On Wednesday we got some bookings open and the word got out extremely quickly and by the time the afternoon bookings came around they were all completely gone.”

About 50 people a day were being vaccinated at the pharmacy and Mr Shearing said appointments were now fully booked until about August 20.

“We order on a fortnightly basis, we can order up to 600 units a fortnight,” he said.

“The admin part and the preparation is the big difference with this vaccine.

“Because it comes as a multi-dose vial and not as a pre-filled syringe like the flu vaccine does, we have to actually draw them up accurately to the correct dose and label them all correctly so that they are then not kept longer than they can safely be kept.”

Mr Shearing said much work had been done setting up background programs and processes to ensure government vaccine delivery requirements were met.

“There was a whole bunch of training that had to be done, plus there were requirements to set up new systems to have in place for receipt of the vaccine and so on which was different to the flu,” he said.

“The amount of background work that has to be in place to make that happen, with all the security protocols and so on that the Commonwealth has, it takes literally hours of time to get everything set up.

“There’s a huge amount that has be done … including uploading to Australian Immunisation Register.”

Many pharmacists across Australia first expressed interest in helping to deliver vaccines in February and in Mr Shearing’s case, he was approved to do so in May.

“It’s been a difficult situation, I fully understand that but I do have to say it’s been quite frustrating to be ready to go since May,” he said.

“We completed everything we needed to back in May, we’d been approved, we had everything in place and then nothing happened for the best part of three-and-a-half months.

“That just seems like a wasted opportunity and then suddenly we’re now in a situation where we’re rushing to get this done. There definitely wouldn’t have been the need for the rush if we had started earlier … hindsight’s wonderful, but certainly I feel it was a missed opportunity.”

Priceline Pharmacy Dubbo owner Greg Shearing with doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Picture: Ryan Young

While the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) had changed its advice about the AstraZeneca jab multiple times and recommended the Pfizer vaccine be preferred for use in under 60s, Mr Shearing said most people understood the risks.

“When you compare AstraZeneca to Covid-19 the disease there is no comparison,” he said.

“You are literally a one in a million chance of dying from having the AstraZeneca vaccine, if we had a million cases of Covid we would probably have between 25,000 and 30,000 deaths.”