Keep calm, carry on … and fix the vaccine rollout

Unlike the US, the UK and Europe, Australia is not in the depths of a COVID-19 crisis. That said, a timely, efficient rollout of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines is important. Winter, when the virus can appear to be more dangerous, is on the way. News that the UK variant of COVID-19 is between 30 and 100 per cent more deadly than previous strains, according to a peer-reviewed study in the British Medical Journal, is worrying. So is the news that coronavirus fragments have been detected in two wastewater treatment plants in Queensland, covering 60 suburbs. From an employment perspective, reopening international borders is critical to economic recovery and depends on the vaccination program. Its rollout is already badly behind schedule. Only 125,000 doses have been given nationwide, compared with an initial target of four million doses by early April.

On Thursday, Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy conceded Scott Morrison’s October target for the full rollout was in jeopardy and some people might have to wait until 2022 to receive their second dose. He told a Senate hearing on Thursday that all Australians would probably have their first dose by October. The deadline has been pushed out on two doses because the waiting time before the first and second jab of AstraZeneca has been increased from four to 12 weeks. While disappointing, there is only one sensible approach to the setback. The government must effectively address the numerous setbacks causing the delay. And the public, while going about everyday life, must in the meantime continue to practise COVID safety precautions.

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, moved to put one concern to rest on Friday. He dismissed concerns that the AstraZeneca vaccine may be linked to blood clots. Use of the vaccine has been suspended in Denmark, Iceland and Norway while Danish health authorities investigate the death of a 60-year-old woman from a coagulation disorder and another illness from a pulmonary embolism in a patient who had ­received the vaccine. No links have been established. Other European nations have also stopped using one batch of the vaccine, pending investigations into the death of a woman in Austria and two men in ­Sicily. Professor Kelly said the vaccine is effective, safe and high-quality, and that more than 11 million people in Britain had been injected with no evidence of an ­increase in blood clots.

Australia’s shortfall of supplies will be alleviated when local production of AstraZeneca, at the expected rate of one million doses a week, comes online from March 22. The shortfall in supplies from Europe underlines the importance of our capacity to produce our own medications. Producers of the Pfizer vaccine say Australia will receive its full allocation of 20 million doses by year’s end.

The government must also solve administrative issues threatening to interrupt the rollout. A major insurer of nurses has temporarily paused the issue of new policies for nurses participating in the vaccine program. Guild Insurance, Australia’s biggest public liability insurer, is in talks with the government “to secure essential support” for insured nurses. Many GP practices, already at full or near capacity, and some with long waiting lists, fear they will be unable to distribute vaccines on top of their normal workloads. Ever practical, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s proposal to “save months’’ by extending the role of the state’s 100 temporary vaccination hubs when the scheme shifts from protecting the most vulnerable people to the general public is worth pursuing. So is the use of mass vaccination centres at sporting grounds and shopping centres. After managing the pandemic so well to date, Australia must not fall at this important hurdle.