AstraZeneca jabs can help get us out of a Covid-19 crisis

28-year old William Stoltz gets the AstraZeneca vaccine on 29 June, in Canberra. Photo: Jamila Toderas

The Australian Medical Association is recommending against under 60s taking the AstraZeneca jab. That is notwithstanding a forthcoming full indemnity from the federal government, announced on Monday. And it is notwithstanding the fact that many of AMA’s members are running hospital wards full of immune-compromised Australians who risk getting wiped out by a Delta Covid-19 strain. It is notwithstanding that those at the AMA are more than capable of getting their heads around how individual risk of vaccine side-effects changes with a rise, or even a risk of rise in Covid-19 cases in a community. With half the country in lockdown, this is a volatile situation.

The AMA’s nose is out of joint because it wasn’t consulted on the decision. ATAGI, the body that advises the Health Minister on immunisation, says the preferred vaccine for under 60s is Pfizer.

AMA President Omar Khorshid, an orthopaedic surgeon, says the government’s announcement on AstraZeneca will only confuse patients further. There are reports of phone calls from under 40s flooding GP surgeries and other reports saying the government’s announcement will put more people off. Media commentators blame the government for all this confusion.

Australia, get a grip. GPs nationwide, is this really the representation that you want? Is this a way out of the crisis, to sit and wait while the good trackers and tracers of Australia desperately try to keep up with Delta? You know the statistics on AstraZeneca, you know the facts. What is the priority given the vector power of the Delta strain? Jabs in arms is the priority, surely?

Let us hope that AstraZeneca vaccines will be on offer at pharmacies as they enter the Covid-19 jab frontline, presumably with a government indemnity. CSL, which produces the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne, has wasted no time finding new and grateful recipients overseas for any oversupply, thanks to the public health scare.

We know that every time a well-meaning radio or TV presenter repeats the “extremely small but potentially fatal” line about a side effect, it’s another body blow for the wider vaccine rollout. Why do Australians buy a lotto ticket if they don’t believe that lady luck will call on them?

The problem from the get go with the pandemic has been that medical experts have been wheeled out in front of the public, with political leaders standing behind them. This gives little or no room for the PM or premiers to lead. The AMA should be part of Team Australia, not fighting it.

One could well ask why the government, six months ago, didn’t get Marky Mark to sit on an oversized syringe as well as the rocket he used to advertise sports betting while he was over in Australia. Think back to 1987 and the Grim Reaper campaign created by the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (then chaired by Ita Buttrose), which had a huge impact in a war against another terrible virus.

The silver lining to this current lockdown is that fear of catching the Delta strain appears to be shaking off vaccine lethargy, and possibly even vaccine hesitancy. Hooray, let’s build on that. For this is the only way out of our self-imposed Covid Catch-22. Commentators railing about confused messages from above only adds to inertia.

In the blue state of Minnesota, reporter Annelise Nielson on Sky News on Tuesday showed Minneapolis open for business, with people out and about in shopping centres and restaurants. Covid-19 deaths have dropped to five a day, she said — a shocking statistic for Australians, but not for Americans. The people of Minnesota are coming to terms with Covid-19 as they have with the flu, which kills around 700 a year in that state.

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has set a vaccination target of 80 per cent of the population. Only then she says can we have a conversation on what Covid-19 normal looks like. Her chief medical officer Kerry Chant noted that unlike measles, the Covid-19 vaccination will not get rid of the disease. “Even at 80 per cent of the population protected, we will still see Covid-19 able to transmit in the population and that is what the Premier is talking about, in terms of what living with Covid-19 means.”

Covid-19 normal means opening of national and international borders, a return of immigration bringing new skills to the workforce. It is the opportunity for real growth, not taxpayer funded stimulus growth. There will be overseas holidays, a chance to see loved ones for so many Australians and the return of foreign students.