‘Oldies’ hedging their Covid-19 jab bets

The government’s hope of vaccinating the bulk of the population by the end of the year is being threatened by people delaying their jabs.

Northbridge Medical Centre GP Rob Nelson in Sydney’s north shore administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Viv Collard on Monday. Picture: John Feder

The federal government’s hope of vaccinating the bulk of the population by the end of the year is being threatened by large numbers of people aged between 50 and 70 years old who are hedging their bets on vaccines, electing to delay vaccination with AstraZeneca in the hope they can receive a Pfizer or Moderna shot later.

As vaccination for everyone aged 50 or above opened up at general practices, doctors are reporting a significant proportion of older people who are so concerned by blood clots associated with AstraZeneca that they are holding off in the hope of receiving a different vaccine.

“Basically every consultation there is some degree of vaccine hesitancy and discussion,” said Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price. “Some people are adamant they’re going to wait. Even though I bring out my infographics, they’re adamant they wait to wait. Unfortunately, they’ve got this idea there’s a superior vaccine.

“No amount of talking about statistics saying the blood clots are extremely rare is going to change some people’s mind because they fear they will be the one.”

Despite the significant degree of vaccine hesitancy, GPs were nevertheless reporting strong uptake of the AstraZeneca shot as vaccination at doctors’ clinics opened up to the over 50s.

“We have had lots of people in their 50s and above wanting a vaccine,” Dr Price said. “They’re in that ‘Heck yes’ group. And uptake among the 70 years and above age group has been particularly strong.”

Anita Mills was one patient able to receive a vaccine at a GP clinic on Monday after bookings opened up to the over-50s.

Like many, Ms Mills was concerned when news broke of blood clotting. “I am 64 and I have had hesitations,” she said.

“I think we all worry about getting blood clots but the way the doctor explains it is right: it’s better to have the vaccine and not get COVID-19 than to get it while worrying about getting blood clots.”

Australia has now administered 3.1 million doses of vaccine across the country, with 436,000 vaccines given in the past week. More than 350,000 doses of the Pfizer shot and 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca were cleared by the Therapeutic Goods Administration last week for distribution to GPs, state vaccination hubs and aged and disability care facilities.

The federal government was heavily criticised on Monday for the extremely slow vaccine rollout to disabled people, with Health Minister Greg Hunt revealing that only 999 people living in a disability care facility had received at least one dose of vaccine.

There are 26,000 disabled people living in residential care.

The disability royal commission held a special one-day hearing on the issue, with counsel assisting the royal commission, Kate Eastman SC, describing the rollout as an “abject failure”.

Among GPs, there is widespread relief that doses of vaccines being supplied are now being doubled or tripled. Large clinics will have their doses supplied each week doubled from 100 to 200, while smaller clinics will have their supplied tripled from 50 to 150. However, doctors say the supply is still not enough to meet demand.

“That’s been a universal cry in the last couple of months, more doses please,” Dr Price said.

“Some of my patients are having to go elsewhere for their vaccine, but most of my patients are not really wanting to go to a mass vaccination clinic.”

At the same time as many GP practices do not have enough doses for demand, others cannot book enough patients in.

“We’re hearing there are some practices where they can’t get through their allocations,” Dr Price said.

Northbridge Medical Centre GP Rob Nelson, 34, said when concerns surrounding AstraZeneca were first reported, his practice experienced a small drop in COVID-19 vaccine bookings.

“There was probably an extra 5 or 10 per cent drop in terms of our clinic but not as bad as what we’ve been hearing elsewhere,” he said.

“We were still filling our ­appointments, doing our allocation of 400 a week. It was just that it was broadcast and we were having a few little empty spots here and there.”

Once spots opened up to over 50s, bookings quickly picked back up.

“We have had a big increase in booking since the opening up of the bracket to over 50s. It was starting to dwindle in terms of being booked out so far in advance but looking at our diary now, we’re booked up to July,” Dr Nelson said.

Federal and state governments are striving to meet a target set by the commonwealth of having all people in Phase 1 of the rollout vaccinated by the end of the June.