Young flocking to take up AstraZeneca

People aged under 40 are rushing to doctors to discuss and receive the jab.

Risks of blood clots ‘insignificant’: Callum Silcock receives his AstraZeneca vaccination from Adrienne Chan. Picture: Aaron Francis

GPs are reporting a spike in demand for AstraZeneca among young people as states battle fresh Covid-19 outbreaks threatening the country’s return to normality.

Doctors from Sydney, Melbourne and Townsville said interest had surged in people aged under 40 who had come forward to discuss and receive the jab.

The spike came after Scott Morrison effectively threw out his phased vaccine rollout strategy and made everyone above the age of 18 eligible for a jab when he announced a no-fault indemnity scheme for GPs to deliver AstraZeneca on June 28.

Just under 40,000 people below the age of 40 got their first dose of AstraZeneca in a little more than three weeks since the announcement, the Prime Minister said on Thursday. A total of 76,595 first and second doses had been delivered in that timeframe.

Data from the federal Department of Health indicated young people in Victoria were leading the charge in AztraZeneca take-up, with 29,205 people under 40 fully vaccinated and 17,705 having one dose since the start of the rollout in March.

NSW reported 22,678 fully vaccinated and 22,348 who’d had one dose at July 19, while 26,625 young people in Queensland had been fully vaccinated and 9585 had had one dose.

Melbourne-based GP and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Victoria chair Anita Munoz said the decision to protect doctors from legal liability in rare cases of AstraZeneca ­adverse reactions prompted an ­increase in interest.

Adrienne Chan gives Grace Anthony, 35, a dose of AstraZeneca. Picture: Aaron Francis

“In my practice, and I have heard also for many other practices in and around Victoria, there are a lot of patients in that under-40 age group coming forward and very interested in being vaccinated,” she said.

Dr Munoz said dozens and dozens had presented for vaccines, likely shocked into action by Victoria’s fourth and fifth lockdowns. “I think the more we lock down, the more people realise we are stuck in a stalemate unless we vaccinate,” she said. “It will be an absolute tragedy if we need to get to European levels of trans­mission before our population ­decide it is time to vaccinate.”

Sydney-based RACGP NSW chair Charlotte Hespe said Mr Morrison’s announcement that young people could get AstraZeneca after discussing it with their doctor opened up conversations. “Everybody knows the trickiest (choice) is for our younger population who … with full respect, have been put on very much the lowest priority pile,” she said.

“There was very little thought or consideration put into what were their options.”

After NSW recorded 124 locally acquired cases on Thursday, Dr Hespe said her clinic in Sydney’s inner-city Glebe had been extraordinarily busy with vaccines. “We have been having people under the age of 40 accessing ­AstraZeneca, whereas I think it would be fair to say prior to (the outbreaks) there had been a bit of a stagnant attitude about the vaccination program.”

RACGP rural council chair and Queensland-based GP Michael Clements said a virus scare prompted by a 19-year-old woman who contracted the delta strain of Covid-19 in late June before holidaying in Townsville and Magnetic Island did “wonders” to counter vaccine hesitancy. “Covid was something that seemed to be happening to Victoria and then NSW and we were protected by our borders. All of a sudden the threat was real.”

After GPs were indemnified, Dr Clements said young people approached him wanting to protect their families and the country.

Grace Anthony, who had her first dose of AstraZeneca at the Midtown Medical Clinic in the Melbourne CBD so she could visit her family locally and in the US, urged other young people to take up the free shot.

Callum Silcock, 37, also had his first jab, saying risks of blood clots were “insignificant” and he wanted to visit his family in the UK, Bali and Canada.