Rolling coverage: Deputy premier James Merlino slams calls to pause AstraZeneca rollout amid clotting fears

The Victorian government is standing firm in its support of the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout as other countries investigate reports of blood clotting.

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Rogue MP Craig Kelly has demanded the government halt its AstraZeneca rollout in response to blood clotting concerns, following a similar call from Nationals senator Matt Canavan.

Germany, Italy, France and Spain are among a host of countries to suspend their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts while they investigate reports of blood clotting in patients who have been vaccinated.

Mr Kelly blindsided Scott Morrison by quitting the Liberal Party in February, after the prime minister attempted to reign in the backbencher’s promotion of COVID-19 treatments that contradicted official health advice.

Mr Kelly said it was “quite possible” the vaccine would prove safe, but said Australia should learn lessons from overseas.

He said the Pfizer vaccine rollout should continue.

“We are in a completely different situation to these countries overseas,” he said.

“We can afford surely pause for a week. Let’s review the other data (and) we can continue the vaccine program after that if these other countries say it’s OK.

“Surely it’s the precautionary principle must apply.”

The European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication the cases were caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine, and Australian health authorities also maintain the vaccine is safe.

But Senator Canavan told Sky News on Tuesday the “serious concerns” had to be heeded.

“I don’t think all the capitals of Europe have been overtaken by anti-vaccine zealots. There is obviously legitimate concerns here,” he said.

“Given that we are a country where there is not really an imminent threat of coronavirus, I just don’t see how the risk of the vaccine outweighs, or is better than, suspending right now.”

Senator Canavan said the health advice from Europe was relevant to Australia.

“I just don’t think we can close our eyes to this evidence,” he said.

“The end goal has to be the health and safety of Australians.”

The State Government has thrown their support behind the AstraZeneca rollout, with acting premier James Merlino confident the jab is safe.

“It is incredibly rigorous, incredibly careful and if it’s been approved by the TGA it is safe,” he said, when questioned on Tuesday.

In terms of Victoria’s vaccination rollout, Mr Merlino said the State Government would meet their half of the deal.

“We will deliver on our commitment under the national implementation plan where Victoria is responsible for vaccinating 37 per cent of population,” he said.

“(We’ve delivered) 30,000 vaccinations in the first three weeks and we will reach our target of 40,000 within four weeks.

“We can only deliver as quickly as the vaccine is supplied. The supply and distribution of the vaccine is a federal government responsibility.”

It comes as a leading Victorian epidemiologist has questioned the “extreme” decision of European regulators to pause the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine rollout.

Germany, Italy, France and Spain have temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca due to concerns over blood clotting.

Over the weekend, Ireland and the Netherlands both suspended the vaccine, with a Dutch drugs watchdog saying there were potentially 10 cases of blood clots linked to the vaccine.

But Deakin University Chair of Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said it was a surprising move, given the extremely low cases of people experiencing blood clots and the lack of evidence to suggest they were caused by the vaccine.

“It does seem a more extreme step to actually suspend. But it is a suspension, it’s only a two-week suspension and I’d be expecting them to resume in two weeks time,” she said.

Epidemiologists say Australians should not hold concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of two COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Australia and is the jab the majority of the population will receive.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the AstraZeneca rollout would continue and health authorities had not expressed any alarm over its safety.

Professor Bennett said she hoped the pause in Europe would not detract from public confidence in the vaccine safety.

“It isn’t a reason for Australians to be concerned, if anything it shows the safety measures in Europe are in place, and are perhaps overly cautious. But this is telling us about the safety measures and not anything negative about the vaccine,” she said.

“What’s interesting is there is no biological pathway between the components of the vaccine and its likely outcome, which is the severe blood clotting that they’re worried about. It’s not really a biologically plausible outcome but you still look at every association to make sure there’s nothing going on.”

University of South Australia Professor Adrian Esterman agreed European regulators were being “overly cautious” in this case.

He said the issue could stir more alarm among people worried about vaccine safety.

“We’re already getting a reasonable chunk of people in Australia saying they’re hesitant to get vaccinated. This won’t help. The message we must get out to the Australian public is that at this stage we believe it’s safe. If our TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) felt there were issues they would stop it as well,” he said.

“Our TGA is probably the most conservative of any of the regulating agencies, if they felt there were any issues whatsoever they would immediately stop the rollout. The fact that they haven’t says they don’t believe the evidence is there, and neither does the World Health Organisation.”

Australian National University Professor Peter Collignon said the risks of pausing the rollout would do more harm than good.

“You’re probably going to cause more deaths by suspending the vaccine for two weeks, even if there is a rare side effect associated with it,” he said.

And he said in Australia it may have the effect of “causing more hesitancy than is warranted”.

“Yes we need to have ongoing safety evaluations to work out what risk if anything is there, but all the available evidence at the moment is that the benefits so far outweigh the risks, that we should go ahead.”

IS SUPERSPREADER BEHIND QLD CLUSTER?

A cluster of three COVID-19 virus cases linked to the Hotel Grand Chancellor is mystifying Queensland health authorities, with speculation that a super spreader may be responsible.

Genomic sequencing has linked all three infections – two of them staying on floor one of the Grand Chancellor and a doctor, who assessed one of the hotel cases at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The inner-city Brisbane hotel was also involved in Queensland’s only other case of the pandemic virus breaching hotel quarantine, resulting in a six-person cluster and a three-day lockdown of Greater Brisbane in January.

Read the full story here.

CONCERNS OVER NSW, QUEENSLAND

The race to contact thousands of people who arrived in Victoria from coronavirus trouble spots on Monday night continued as NSW and Queensland probed breaches of hotel quarantine.

Victoria recorded zero new cases on Tuesday but all eyes were on NSW and Queensland where outbreaks were linked to the especially contagious UK strain.

The Health Department has contacted more than 4700 Victorian arrivals who travelled from NSW since March 13 after a Sydney quarantine security guard’s positive test.

A further 2975 people who had arrived in Victoria since March 11 from Brisbane, where a doctor at Princess Alexandra Hospital became infected, were also contacted.

Victorian authorities hadn’t identified any arrivals who were primary close contacts or had visited exposure site interstate.

Anyone who visited any four interstate high-risk sites during the exposure period has been told to isolate for 14 days.

NSW is currently battling an outbreak.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton will have the final say on border restrictions.

But Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan on Monday said there was no intention to restrict border movements between NSW and Queensland.

Ms Allan welcomed news of eased restrictions for Victorians entering Western Australia after the state announced Victoria had transitioned from “low risk” to “very low risk”.

“It is a positive step forward,” Ms Allan said. “But we’ve seen, with the recent cases in New South Wales particularly, that we have to continue to be vigilant.”

The vaccine rollout hit a milestone on Monday with healthcare workers at four major southeast Melbourne hospitals among 606 people to receive the jab.

Monash Medical Centre’s head of general medicine Sumitha Bhaskaran said it was “a huge relief”.