Moving vaccine goalposts amid lockdown confusion

After a brilliant start last year when good management, shutting down international borders early and our geographic isolation minimised our Covid-19 caseload and held down the death toll compared with most nations, our vaccine rollout has degenerated into a shambles. The onset of winter and the disproportionate responses to a handful of cases by Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not helping morale and confidence either. Australia is sitting in bottom place on a table of OECD nations in terms of the percentage of the population completely vaccinated with both jabs, an uncomfortable place to be. We must and can catch up.

Early on, the Morrison government and CSL invested heavily in the AstraZeneca vaccine. But in early April, the nation’s health authorities recommended that its use be limited to people aged over 50 following confirmation of a rare but serious risk of fatal blood clots in younger patients, who were advised to have the Pfizer vaccine. That recommendation changed earlier this month, when the government accepted the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation that AstraZeneca be recommended for use only in people 60 and older. Those aged 50 to 59 who already had one AstraZeneca jab were advised to have their second AstraZeneca shot.

Fast forward to Monday night and Scott Morrison, after a national cabinet meeting, announced yet another change in ground rules. The about-face contradicts previous advice and adds to confusion. But it is advice for the better that should boost the vaccine rollout, under which 7.5 million people have had their first jab and 7.2 per cent of the eligible population are now fully vaccinated. The government has made it easier for under-60s to have the AstraZeneca jab – or a different vaccine – after consultation with a doctor. That is, after all, the ideal place for individuals to be advised about which treatment is best for them given their medical histories. It is where patients should discuss news emerging from overseas that preliminary studies suggest mixing and matching vaccines is safe and provides a strong immune response.

Nor will younger people have to pay for their vaccines. On Tuesday, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government was extending to those under 50 the Medicare item that covered over-50s to have a vaccine consultation. Under-40s, who are not yet part of the rollout nationally, will be able to ask their GPs about getting the ­AstraZeneca jab.

The new pharmacy vaccination program will help. So will the no-fault indemnity scheme for general practitioners who ­administer Covid-19 vaccines and the plan for compulsory vaccination for aged-care workers by ­September – preferably sooner. The same should apply to other workers at the frontlines of the fight against Covid-19. The outbreak that arose in NSW after an unvaccinated Sydney driver transported international flight crew to their quarantine hotel shows the risks of unvaccinated staff working on the frontlines. So do the problems in Queensland, where an unvaccinated 19-year-old woman working as a casual receptionist outside the Covid ward at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane’s north side spent more than a week in the community, travelling to Townsville and Magnetic Island, while showing symptoms of the virus. As Jamie Walker reports, the teenager’s positive test result was returned on Tuesday morning. The result was enough for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to put the state into a three-day lockdown, and dozens of locations in Brisbane and Townsville are on high alert. While governments have a responsibility to protect the public, heads of hospitals, nursing homes, quarantine facilities, hotels, and transport, catering and cleaning companies whose staff are exposed to Covid-19 cases also must be proactive to ensure their frontline staff are vaccinated, for their own sakes and that of the community.

Overnight on Monday, NSW recorded 19 new local Covid cases. Since the Bondi cluster began on June 16, 149 locally acquired cases have been reported, of which 141 are linked to the original cluster. Of 88 patients being treated, two are in intensive care. By international standards, the outbreak is minor and the two-week lockdown is overkill. It’s far less overkill, however, than the Queensland, WA and NT lockdowns. They make a mockery of aiming for containment of Covid-19, and not elimination. Experience in Israel and Britain shows vaccinating most people lessens the severity of Covid but does not eliminate it. If we are to open up sooner rather than later so Australians can travel, and the students and skilled workers the economy needs can come in, completing the vaccine rollout is the first priority. From there, learning to live sensibly with the virus will be another.