Why Victoria’s vaccine supply won’t help NSW

Diverting Victoria’s vaccines to NSW is not a silver bullet, experts say, and the state locked down “far too late” for jabs to make a difference.

A leading expert says diverting Victoria’s vaccines to NSW won’t help the state’s outbreak. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Vaccines are not a silver bullet to help Sydney’s current Covid-19 wave, with one of the world’s top immunity experts warning only a tough and prolonged lockdown can overcome the outbreak.

Despite NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking other states to hand over their allocations of Pfizer vaccine, it would take several weeks at least for Sydneysiders receiving them to gain protection from the jabs.

And with up to 50 per cent of a community needing to be immunised to effectively slow the spread of a virus through its population, the Sydney outbreak may have to continue for months for vaccines to have a major role in slowing its spread.

While the Covid vaccine rollout desperately needs to accelerate to protect Australians from future outbreaks, Nobel prize-winning immunity expert Professor Peter Doherty said protection may be just as needed in other states over the coming months.

“We certainly want to get everyone vaccinated as soon as possible, but it is not going to help them (Sydney) over the next three or four weeks,” Prof Doherty said.

“It is at least six to eight weeks before you get top-level protection (from Covid vaccines).

“They can’t wait on vaccines, they have waited around too much anyway and they locked down far too late.

“What Sydney needs is to be locked down hard.”

Despite lockdown, beachgoers turn out in droves at Double Bay in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

But Professor Marc Pellegrini of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, said targeting the worst-affected areas with Covid vaccines could help to slow the spread.

“This may represent a drop in the ocean for the whole of Australia, but may have a more immediate effect in communities in Sydney where the virus is surging,” Prof Pellegrini said.

“Whichever way you look at it, getting people vaccinated is critical and targeting groups who are in the midst of an outbreak serves a dual purpose.”

Australia’s national cabinet on Friday rejected Ms Berejiklian’s request for other states and territory leaders to share their Pfizer vaccines with Sydney hot spots, with the federal government instead allocating an additional 50,000 doses to NSW.

But Ms Berejiklian’s plea was at odds with her position from a month earlier, when she was asked during a Sydney radio interview if she would divert NSW Pfizer doses to help with a Victorian outbreak.

“They are not getting it,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The feds are giving them more anyway.”

During the June 4 interview with radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, Ms Berejiklian was also critical of the need for Victoria to resort to lockdowns to combat Covid-19 outbreaks compared to her own determination to keep Sydney open.

“It is not for me to comment about what other governments do, but we’ve got the confidence that our systems are in place, our public is used to doing things in a particular way and it is a question of trust,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“It is much easier to lock sown because you don’t have to worry about anything. It is much more difficult to let people move around while the virus is circulating.”