Bad advice blamed for sluggish rollout

Queensland’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout continues to lag, with a top infectious disease consultant blaming it on a mixture of low case numbers, a troublesome booking system and warnings against the Vaxzevria jab.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the problem is vaccine supply. Picture: Dan Peled

Queensland’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout continues to lag, with one of the Palaszczuk government’s top infectious disease consultants blaming it on a mixture of low case numbers, a troublesome booking system and warnings against younger people getting the Vaxzevria (formerly AstraZeneca) jab.

Dr Paul Griffin, commissioned by the state government to investigate hotel quarantine and hospital outbreaks of Covid-19 this year, has called for an overhaul of Queensland’s delivery of the vaccine.

Just days before his report into the outbreaks will be publicly released, Dr Griffin said the state needed to start allowing “walk-ins” of people wanting a jab without a booking and increase mass-vaccination hubs across the state.

As of Tuesday, Queensland had the second-lowest per capita rate of first and second doses of any state and territory, beating only Western Australia.

Only 47.63 per cent of its population has had the first dose – compared to the national rate of 54.3 per cent – and 28.85 per cent are fully vaccinated, well behind the 31.56 per cent of the Australian population with two doses.

Dr Griffin said the success of the government’s suppression strategy had fuelled complacency within the population about getting the jab.

But Dr Griffin said the problem was also exacerbated by the government’s reluctance to recommend that people under 60 get AstraZeneca (rebranded as Vaxzevria) and warnings that much younger people shouldn’t get the jab because of the risk of blood clots.

Queensland’s chief health officer Jeannette Young has publicly led the cautionary approach of the state to the Vaxzevria jab.

While not naming Dr Young, Dr Griffin said the messaging about the Vaxzevria jab and its minuscule risk had had an impact on hesitancy.

“I think that the first (challenge) is the low perception of risk, and part of that has been because our control has been quite good,” he said.

“So I think a lot of people have an expectation that we are just going be able to keep it out with the strategies that have been employed to date.

“But then also I think there was a slightly inflated perception of adverse events and some communication, for example, encouraging people not to get the vaccine in certain groups because of the risk of adverse events in that group was higher than the risk from Covid.

“So I think both of those points have meant we’ve been a little bit out of sync with where we used to be in terms of the risk-benefit equation in the state.”

At a press conference on Wednesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended the state’s vaccine rollout, blaming the slow pace of the program to a lack of supply of Pfizer vaccines from the federal government.

“If the federal government wants to give me 100,000 more Pfizers, I’ll put them in people’s arms,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Asked why the lack of supply was not reflected in the data from other states, all of which were outperforming Queensland on a per capita basis, Ms Palaszczuk said they had been given extra supply of Pfizer vaccines.

When it was suggested this only applied to Victoria and NSW, Ms Palaszczuk said “that’s incorrect”.

Ms Palaszczuk said the government had no plans to introduce Vaxzevria to the state’s mass-vaccination hubs, which only administer Pfizer and second doses of the Vaxzevria vaccine.

Mass vaccination hubs in Victoria and NSW offer Vaxzevria to all adults. “They’ve got a big virus outbreak at the moment,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Our (rollout) is working very well at the moment. I’m happy with those vaccination rates.”