US and UK to get extra Covid vaccine as experts say Australia needs to change rules too

Australia is under pressure to do the same as other international countries and change its rules on the Covid vaccine. Have your say.

Health experts are calling for a fifth Covid jab to be delivered to vulnerable Australians at the same time as the annual flu jab in April and May.

A fifth Covid jab must be delivered to vulnerable Australians at the same time as the annual flu jab in April and May, health experts warn.

There are also calls for a rule change so Australians who want a booster shot before travel or just to protect themselves can privately purchase it.

It is more than six months since the elderly and immunocompromised had their last booster and its effectiveness is wearing off, Sydney University vaccine expert Professor Robert Booy said.

“I think it’s pretty straightforward, to be honest. We’ve got winter coming. We’ve got waning immunity against Omicron. We’ve got vulnerable people who haven’t had a booster for six months and a minimum once a year booster is appropriate at the moment that could be delivered in April May at the same time as flu jabs are being rolled out,” he said.

“It’s not exactly rocket science to have a commercial availability for those who want to pay. Just as long as that those who are vulnerable get it for free,” Professor Booy said.

Professor Robert Booy, leading Australian infectious disease physician. Picture: Supplied

University of Queensland’s vaccine expert Professor Paul Griffin and others backed Professor Booy’s calls for the vaccine to be free for those aged over 65, people with multiple medical problems, disabilities and indigenous Australians.

The UK vaccine advisory body last week called for an annual booster dose for people at higher risk of severe Covid and twice yearly (in autumn and spring) Covid jabs for those who are older and those who are immunosuppressed.

The US FDA is laying the groundwork for an annual Covid booster dose that is updated to target the dominant variants of the virus circulating at a point in time.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), which guides government decision making on who gets vaccines here, does not currently recommend a fifth dose except for people who are severely immunocompromised.

Health Minister Mark Butler said “the advice to me from ATAGI was that we should expect advice from them very early this year about additional booster dose”.

“They and governments are thinking about our need to be prepared for the next winter,” he said.

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

The medical community’s push for booster doses for the vulnerable follows comments from Australian National University professor Peter Collignon last year for the rules to be changed so people who wanted a fifth jab could pay for it themselves.

Covid was Australia’s third leading cause of death (after heart disease and dementia) in 2022.

And the Actuaries Institute revealed this week there were 16,600 more deaths than predicted in the first 10 months of 2022 with more than half due to Covid.

Experts are warning Covid is far more serious than the flu, putting 50 times more people in hospital and killing 50-100 times more people than influenza.

Two new bivalent vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna that protect against the original Covid virus as well as the Omicron strain that are now being delivered as booster jabs.

“Pfizer has an agreement with the Australian Government to provide 85 million doses of its mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, COMIRNATY™, over 2022 and 2023,” a Pfizer spokesperson said.

A recent study in Israel found over 65-year-olds who received the new bivalent Covid booster shots were 81 per cent less likely to be hospitalised and 86 per cent less likely to die than those who had not received the vaccine.

Almost a third of eligible Australians have not yet had their third Covid jab and fewer than half those eligible for a fourth shot have had it.

Researchers in Hong Kong found that a third dose provided a 90 per cent reduction in death in people with multiple health conditions compared to just two doses.

Originally published as US and UK to get extra Covid vaccine as experts say Australia needs to change rules too