They may be behind, but under the circumstances, I think they were tracking okay-is.
Covidlive showing they’ve done 20mil vaccinations which is a task in itself (given the states are almost on their own). But the per capita rate is well behind the other countries.
Under Biden, they’ll slowly reign that in. Just like they were slow with testing numbers to begin with, they slowly get better at it and go well ahead of everyone else.
It’s a vaccine supply issue and not a logistics of vaccinating people issue
1 Like
Yeah. Agree.
It also looked like USA were more content selling the vaccine to other countries than actually vaccinating their own.
Think they have reduced the number going to UK now that Biden is in charge.
2 Likes
There was a throw away comment by ScoMo at the presser that Australia may be able to manufacture the Pfizer vaccine.
Does anyone know anything more about this? No journo seemed to ask a question, and I thought it was definitively established that we didn’t have the capability to make mRNA vaccines here?
I reject the premise of your question.
4 Likes
Pfizer have manufacturing plants in 4 Australian cities.
Idk if they’ve got facilities for vaccine production though.
edit
Bit more digging
- can’t produce mRNA vaccine in Oz
- PM hopes one day in the future we can
2 Likes
Lol. Well “one day in the future” is probably definitely not good enough! Particularly if the AZ vaccine’s final data doesn’t stack up…
Hooray!
Hopefully more data arises so more can be vaccinated
On the basis of the data at hand, the TGA decided to approve the vaccine only for people aged over 16.
For the very frail – people aged over 85 – the TGA recommends doctors vaccinate on a “case by case basis”, as the potential benefits of the vaccine must be weighed against the risks of exposing a very frail person to the vaccine’s standard flu-like side-effects.
Doctors will also need to decide themselves whether to jab pregnant women, with the TGA saying there is only limited human data to guide advice. The same goes for people with autoimmune disorders or those with compromised immune systems.
1 Like
Very important to have a GP (or specialists) that you can trust.
I’m glad we’ve had a family doctor for around 5 years (our one before that retired) who knows our circumstances very well.
NSW zero local, 3 OS
8.7k tests
56 active cases
1 Like
Seems like they have done it again.
TGA provisional approval means that it is initially for two years and conditional on Pfizer continuing to provide data . It also means that the product can now be imported.
From what Murphy is saying, with the present state of knowledge, it is not a vaccine conferring immunity over any time period, rather one which moderates or eliminates the short and long term effects of infection in otherwise healthy adults.
2 Likes
Certainly seems as though the current crop of vaccines are disease modifying rather than disease preventing.
Though hopefully ongoing data also shows it’s a case of the latter as that would be preferable.
1 Like
For so long as there is no evidence of prevention or moderation of transmission, the national border rules will need to remain
2 Likes
I wonder how many people understand that? There will be those who think great I got a jab and I can just do what i want to do and go where I want to go without worrying about covid.
Governments and health officials need to be be proactive to get the right message to the public early on and that getting through this is still going to be a long term thing.
1 Like
There is a lack of evidence to date on transmission and long-term immunity effects.
That does NOT mean there is evidence those two things are NOT addressed by the vaccines, which is what a lot of people in here have concluded. There literally hasn’t been long enough, or the appropriate study structures, for us to know.
Traditionally vaccine testing was even more limited than what we’re seeing here: e.g. do NOT include pregnant people, or sometimes even women, in your study. And then we wonder why things pop up later…
There was a piece on AM this morning about there being 20 studies in Australia on various treatments for those already infected. Bloody hard to do any authoritative studies in Australia right now… not enough people infected!
10 Likes
Scomo spoke about exactly that at substantial length this morning.
1 Like
Yep, for once he spoke quite clearly
1 Like
It’s too late now. If we can’t make it here right now it would take years to get ready. The supply issues will ease up as US and Europe continue their rollouts. That will happen quicker than any attempt to get manufacturing off the ground here.
We needed to start building a plant 9 months ago.
he’s a good man