COVID-19 Round 11 - Year 3 of…

They’ll be intentionally staggering the vaccinations to avoid having too many staff from any given ward off for a couple of days.
That and I suspect if there’s proportionally less health staff being jabbed it’s because they’re not volunteering themselves to get it rather than any systematic bias against them.

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SA health has said they were given more doses than they ordered or could handle right now. There’s obv a big disconnect somewhere.

You’re also going to have another proportion of people who are eligible but now won’t take the AZ because they’re scared.

Add that to the 15% of people who won’t take the vaccine voluntarily so you have all sorts of issues.

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Also, for those health care workers under 50, scheduled vaccinations of AZ have been suspended?
Maybe it reflects a shortfall in the alternative of Pfizer supplies or capacity to deliver such vaccinations?

The original roll-out plan ??? had 1a at 670k and 1b about 6.4m (i.e. over 70s plus exceptions/exemptions). Without looking it up my understanding was that 2a was those people over 50, again plus exceptions, which was about 6-7m (i.e. 26m doses) - if all of them have the vaccine which is not going to happen at this stage.

You do realise that AZ has been suspended. We could have 50 billion of them available, makes no difference because it isn’t being given at present.

No, people are still recieving AZ.

It’s recommended those under 50 get a Pfizer vaccine. If after a discussion with their health provider they still believe benefits of AZ vaccine outweigh risks, people under 50 can still recieve an AZ vaccine.

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The fact that it has been suspended around the world says that the Europeans who suspended it weren’t doing for political purposes (only)

Is there more to it? Seems strange to suspend something when the blood clotting is 1 in 200k or so. Or is this normal for all vaccines when they reach this phase of the testing/research?

Do we realistically think any doctor would actually be recommending it to under 50s right now?

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They did ask the government for clarification on the indemnity clause. Assume that got the go ahead.

There is an indemnity clause for Pfizer and AZ in their contracts with the Government.
But what is the indemnity status of those adminstering the jabs? Does informed consent confer indemnity on them and/or the Commonwealth assumes liability?

No idea, the GPs wanted that clarified with the Government last week, not sure what the end result was. You would expect that if the liability lies with the GP, the GP might be a bit hesitant to prescribe AZ.

Do side effects of approved drugs, if used in a registered manner, ever end up with liability for the GP?

Vaccines are a bit different, granted.

The difficulty would seem to be that the magnitude of the side effects has not been established for the Covid vaccines, compared to other vaccines which have been administered over several years.
Also, that the risk of blood clotting at this stage , including the risk according to age group, is a working hypothesis rather than statistically confirmed.

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Table of batches, dates and approval status at the bottom of the page.

3 more AZ batches released this week (2 last week).
Pfizer batches processed each week.

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imo the massive amount of media scrutiny has more to do with it than anything.
If it was a vaccine (or medication) that only 10,000 people in Australia might end up using I don’t think you’d hear about it. And when I say i don’t think I mean I know you wouldn’t hear about it cos the same scenario already exists in every drug ever invented.
“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.” - Paracelsus

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Heard a story today, no idea if it’s true. That hospitals are only vaccinating a 3rd of their staff, just in case something if goes wrong- Their whole workforce isn’t wiped out

You need to adopt a ‘last minute’ vaccination route - Countries that are vaccinating in great numbers have an ‘emergency system’ where unfilled/cancelled spots are then advertised and filled at the last minute - You lack flexibility when you are so reliant on GP’s - Stir Fried Kwok’s post is so correct - People who hesitant to receive a vacciine are unlikely to reconsider when such negative vibes come from any Government.

A lot of people are doing that. Pretty sure Easter Boi said the same thing further up.

People were reporting that they were feeling very tired for a day or two after getting the shot.

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There’s some truth to it.
Been a few weeks since I was at RMH for placement but I (somehow) ended up in an unofficial meeting where they (the physios on the ortho wards) were discussing only vaccinating 1-2 staff members per ward at a time to avoid having too many people off work at once (basically allowing for everyone to have the day of the vaccination + the next day off work).
Since then it’s come out that the “flu like symptoms” can last more than a couple of days (overheard one of the nurses on duty when I got my jab say she ended up taking 5 days to recover) so I can only presume they’ve stretched out how long inbetween staff getting vaccinated, which may mean as little as 1 person per department per ward per week being vaccinated.
At the time there was certainly no plans to cap total vaccinations within any given department/ward but that may have changed recently (though I remain doubtful).

I know some people have been cracking the sads at how slow it seems to be going, but even ignoring problems with vaccine supply nurses are only doing 3-4 vaccinations per hour by the time they go through all the paperwork, documentation and post-jab monitoring.

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