Hesitancy in ‘fool’s paradise’: WA Covid-19 jab appointments go begging

WA doctor Clay Golledge has criticised the vaccine hesitancy in the state, claiming there had been 10,000 vacant Covid-19 vaccination appointments over the past week.

WA infectious disease expert Clay Golledge.

West Australian doctor Clay Golledge has criticised the vaccine hesitancy in the state, claiming there had been 10,000 vacant Covid-19 vaccination appointments over the past week.

Dr Clay, an infectious disease expert who runs a clinic at Hollywood Private Hospital, said “the people of Western Australia have been terrible” at getting the vaccination.

“We have got 10,000 vacant vaccine appointments this week, huge empty queues at the major centres,” Dr Golledge told Sky News. “People just aren’t getting on board because … there is this complacency in living behind a protected border.”

Western Australia and Queensland are the only states where fewer than half of residents have been fully vaccinated.

Dr Golledge said West Australians were living in a “fool’s paradise” for maintaining a Covid-zero policy.

“Zero Covid is dead and buried. There is no future in that,” Dr Golledge said.

“Delta is coming for Western Australia, whether it is next week or next month or the month after. But it is definitely coming. We need to get vaccinated and prepare to live alongside it.

“In some way we will have to go backwards a little bit to go forwards, to accept a small number of cases here.”

There was a record 350,000 Covid vaccinations administered in the 24 hours to Wednesday, with 80 per cent of Australians receiving at least one jab. More than 58 per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the “real challenge will be to keep the vaccinations going in Queensland and Western Australia, and the Northern Territory”.

“And so I want to say to people in Queensland and Western Australia, and the NT, you’ve done a fantastic job but if you want a vaccination, there is a vaccination and every Australian has to presume that at some point they will be exposed to Covid. That’s simply the reality around the world,” Mr Hunt told Sky News.

“And the best protection is to come forward, to be vaccinated, to join those record numbers, to join the more than 80 per cent of eligible Australians that have come forward to be vaccinated.”

The head of the vaccination rollout, Lieutenant General John Frewen, said he was concerned about hesitancy in WA, Queensland and the Northern Territory. “Complacency is a very significant issue, particularly in the states where there just haven’t been significant outbreaks,” he told the ABC. “We’re really going to have to focus in on specific groups, and try and figure out exactly why they’re hesitant.”