AstraZeneca vaccine? Under 60s decide to give it a shot

More than 340,500 Australians aged under 60 have taken the opportunity to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

Jackson Gray, 21, receives his first AstraZeneca vaccination from Dr Phoebe Norville in Campbelltown, southwest Sydney, on Thursday. Picture: Nikki Short

People aged under 60 are taking up the opportunity to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca in large numbers, with more than 340,500 Australians getting the jab since the Prime Minister urged people to talk to their doctor about it four weeks ago.

One-third of those who have lined up for AstraZeneca in the past four weeks were aged under 40.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation now urges people of all ages in Greater Sydney to ­consider being vaccinated with ­AstraZeneca, but the official ­advice for people outside of ­Sydney is that Pfizer is the ­preferred ­vaccine for those aged under 60.

In most states, only those aged between 40 and 60 are ­currently eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, but many are struggling to get timely appointments amid limited supply.

It is clear that many of those in their twenties, thirties and ­forties are keen to be vaccinated immediately with AstraZeneca rather than wait for months for Pfizer.

More than 65,500 people aged under 40 have been administered the AstraZeneca vaccine since June 28 when Scott Morrison urged young people to ­consider AstraZeneca in consultation with their doctor.

That’s from a total of 694,643 first doses of AstraZeneca ­administered nationwide across all ages groups.

 

Jackson Gray, 21, was one of the thousands aged under 40 who lined up for an AstraZeneca shot on Thursday. He lives in Campbelltown in western Sydney, which is a hotspot for Covid-19 in the NSW Delta ­outbreak.

“With it going around here especially, cases are up every ­single day so I thought it was ­better to get the vaccine now and try to avoid getting the virus and spreading it, so we can get back to normal,” said Mr Gray, who is a postman.

He said he was not concerned about the risk of the rare blood clotting syndrome associated with AstraZeneca.

“My doctor explained the rates of the blood clotting and the chance of getting it and he said there’s a much higher risk of blood clotting in different circumstances than from having the vaccine,” Mr Gray said.

“That kind of took the ­pressure off.”

The nation registered a ­record day of vaccinations on Wednesday, with 201,470 ­administered.

A total of 11,795,236 vaccine doses have now been administered, and 39.46 per cent of the population have had at least one dose, with 17.73 per cent of ­Australians aged over 16 fully vaccinated.

More than 78 per cent of ­people aged over 70 have had at least one vaccine dose, with 39.5 per cent fully vaccinated.

Among those aged over 50, 64.13 per cent have had at least one dose, and 24.34 per cent are fully vaccinated.

There has been strong ­demand for the AstraZeneca vaccines at pharmacies since hundreds of pharmacists began administering the jab.

Pharmacist Quinn On, who works at Cabramatta in the centre of Sydney’s biggest outbreak, said he had already run out of his two-week allocation of AstraZeneca shots, having administered 300 vaccines during the past four days.

“I’m just inundated, there’s so many people waiting,” Dr On said. “Because we’ve got so many walk-ins I’ve got three ­pharmacists to help with the ­immunisations.

“It’s good to get the immunisation happening while people are enthusiastic, because there’s always a lot of AstraZeneca hesitancy, especially among the ­ethnic groups. Everyone’s ­always asking for Pfizer, but we’re managing to get them across to AstraZeneca.”

Dr On said about 60 per cent of the people he had vaccinated this week were aged over 60 but noted: “We’re getting more younger people come through at the moment.”

 

However, Campbelltown GP Ken McCroary said most of the inquiries his practice was fielding was from people wanting Pfizer.

“We’ve had virtually nil phone calls for AstraZeneca this week, which is such a heartbreak,” Dr McCroary said.

“Surgeries around the state and around the country have fridges full of Astra, they’re ­making bulk amounts in Melbourne every day.

“It’s freely available, it works as well as any others on the ­market, it’s safe. We just want everyone to get vaccinated.”

Dr McCroary said he was ­advising patients to get vaccinated with whichever vaccine they could access without delay.

“If we just get the message across to people to book an ­appointment with their GP to come in and talk about it we can clear up any concerns or any confusion,” Dr McCroary said.

“We can give you all of the facts, and then you can make a fully informed decision.”