Don’t delay Covid-19 jab warning to over 50s

Medical groups and leading doctors have warned people older than 50 not to delay in getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

Scott Morrison tours healthtech Planet Innovation at Box Hill in Melbourne’s east on Thursday. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Medical groups and leading doctors have warned people older than 50 not to delay in getting a COVID-19 vaccine in the hope that they can receive an alternative shot to AstraZeneca.

Health Minister Greg Hunt urged everybody aged over 50 to get a vaccine as soon as possible, saying there would be enough mRNA vaccine for everyone later.

“Right now, we want to encourage everybody over 50 to be vaccinated as early as possible,” he said. “But we’ve been very clear that as supply increases later on in the year, there will be enough … mRNA vaccines for every ­Australian.”

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said while extra Pfizer and Mod­erna supplies would arrive later in the year, it was crucial Australians aged over 50 got vaccinated with an AstraZeneca jab as soon as possible. “With winter on our doorstep, we are vulnerable to a coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

“The best way to protect our community is for the vulnerable to be vaccinated, especially those aged over 70, who are vulnerable to very bad outcomes if they contract coronavirus.”

Dr Khorshid also said Australians aged over 50 who delayed getting vaccinated to get a Pfizer shot would not be high on the priority list “because they’ve chosen not to have the vaccine available to them”.

“That would be a bad thing for Australia if we had a large number of our vulnerable population not vaccinated because they had this perception that one vaccine is better than the other when the data does not at all show that.”

Royal Australian College of GPs vice-president Bruce Willett said it would be an “enormous risk” for people to wait for a different vaccine. He said people with a history of blood clots were not at higher risk of the rare thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia.

“The risk-benefit analysis is clear that people need to go and get it — it’s a risky strategy to wait,” Dr Willett said.

“My advice to my patients is get vaccinated, do it now.”

Scott Morrison said there was no reason for the over-50s to delay vaccination. “My mum’s had ­AstraZeneca, Jenny’s had AstraZeneca, my mother-in-law’s had AstraZeneca, Greg Hunt’s had ­AstraZeneca, and so have so many across the country,” the Prime Minister said.

“There’s plenty of AstraZeneca jabs that are out there.

“This is a safe vaccine, as ­approved by the TGA, and they’re one of the best, if not the best, vaccine regulators anywhere in the world today.”

The TGA announced six new cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

There have now been a total of 24 cases of rare blood clots from 2.1 million AstraZeneca vaccines given. One person has died, one is intensive care and all others are stable and recovering.

Australia has now vaccinated 3.3 million people.

Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin urged the over 50s to get vaccinated as soon as possible, and emphasised the very rare cases of blood clots were now “milder presentations”.

“We are in a very different situation in relation to blood clots than were a couple of months ago,” Professor Lewin said.

“There is a very high awareness among patients and among ­doctors, there is now effective ­diagnosis and treatment and for that reason we are seeing milder presentations.”

Director of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University Shane Thomas said he was concerned that Mr Hunt’s comments might encourage older people to think they could wait for an mRNA vaccine later in the year.

“I think the effect of his comments is that people will relax about taking the AZ now with its faults because there will be a better one coming,” Professor Thomas said.

Immunologist and Nobel laureate Peter Doherty retweeted a clip of Mr Hunt’s comments with the comment: “I’ll be getting my second AstraZeneca jab next month, and the more people are vaccinated now, the faster we’ll get to a fully vaccinated population after the mRNA vaccines arrive.”