Government's refusal to answer simple questions leaves vaccine vacuum

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On Tuesday, I asked Australia's Health Minister Greg Hunt a fairly simple question | ANALYSIS

One goal of an immunisation strategy can be herd immunity: enough people are vaccinated that a virus cannot find new hosts, and the epidemic dies out. This protects people who cannot or will not be vaccinated, and those for whom the vaccine does not work well. Herd immunity isNumbers vary, but credible estimates put the level of community immunity needed to reach COVID-19 herd immunity at between 60 and 72 per cent.

"Minister, the government appears to have committed to rolling out AstraZeneca’s vaccine," I asked. "But clinical trial evidence suggests it is only 62 per cent effective. That’s below the threshold needed to achieve herd immunity. By rolling this out widely, is the Australian government essentially conceding our vaccine strategy is not going to provide herd immunity?”

Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy , Health Minister Greg Hunt and Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly during a press conference on the COVID-19 vaccine road map last week.His answer: “No, not at all. And respectfully, I have heard that argument put by one of the people who predicted 400,000 deaths in the last year ... That same person predicted 3000 cases on the eighth of January. We’re listening to the Australian government medical experts.

Instead of expanding on the answer, Mr Hunt launched an extraordinary and unprompted attack on a scientist. He did not refer to the expert by name, but the person was easily identifiable . We know now the government's real answer on herd immunity: it is not part of the short-term plan. The government’s immediate strategy is to protect life.of the vaccines, including AstraZeneca's, will confer herd immunity, but that they did think they will save lives. If we have that ability, we should act as soon as possible, they argued.

 

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Hes just a Liberal

Where were you asking simple questions of Dan Andrews....and Sutton....lame...

Alternate dosing regimens seem to be more effective and using the vaccine we have rather than the one we want seems sensible to me. What bothers me more is that this government refuses to ever be straight with us. Lying, obfuscating, covering up, spinning, is all they ever do.

Parents of young children want to know: if more adults are spreaders of covid & don't show symptoms because they have had the vaccine. Are young children more likely to get covid from a parent or teacher who was vaccinated, caught covid & has no symptoms & unknowingly spread it?

Can your publication please do a story on likelihood of bad long term health outcomes for children if they have had covid and what those bad health outcomes are. Eg long term lung damage, heart damage etc. Look overseas for stories. Much more covid there

I think they are injecting a little bit of Wizard of Oz juice. This is not the measles or polio vaccine.

We have backed the wrong horse. However, pivot and adapt...Place the first vaccine into the high risk areas, and order the more effective one and have a tier 1 and tier 2 strategy.

How can this guy push a clearly inferior vaccine ? We have a much better vaccine . He is putting the health and economy of Australia at risk . The madness and incompetence continues . When will people wake up ?

This is the way the LNP do business. Dishing out public money to mates regardless of the consequences for others. There is no shame.

The AstraZeneca vaccine provides 100% protection against severe disease and death. That’s all we need. Mild illness is not an issue and cannot be used by media to generate the endless fear that sells newspapers.

Our immediate focus rightly as a nation is to prevent people dying from disease. Herd immunity is a longer term aspiration which has become more challenging to predict because of the no of cases globally & paucity of precise data on whether any of the vaccines reduce transmission

Everyone should ask why our Govt is settling for 62% protection vs. 95%. We are NOT going to open our international borders soon so the risk of a “major outbreak” is low if the nation pursues current policies. Rushing to use AZ means our Govt is abandoning herd immunity.

Any “experts” who predicted 400,000 Australian deaths in the last year, were probably lightweights chasing notoriety. It’s hard to compare vaccines at this stage, it’s a miracle we have any in such short time. Unlike AstraZenaca, logistically speaking, Pfizer’s mRNA is unproven.

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