Morrison Government orders safety review of its only vaccine

By in Australian Economy, Australian Politics

| 23 comments

Thanks to Morrison Government procurement policy, Australia finds itself overly reliant upon the Astra Zeneca vaccine which has had both supply and health issues.

Now, after the UK banned the use of the Astra Zeneca vaccine for under-30s, Australia’s entire vaccine strategy is at risk. At News:

  • The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is moving to assess the AZ vaccine in light of the UK ban for use on under-30s.
  • ATAGI will then advise the national cabinet.
  • The AZ thrombosis link is firming up but remains very rare.
  • The UK ban is the result of a risk/benefit analysis for young people because they are less at risk from COVID itself.

I would have thought it is almost certain that ATAGI will give the go-ahead for the Australian rollout to continue. The European Medicines Agency agency investigating the very rare AZ-thrombosis link overnight declared that the vaccine is still worth using on a risk/benefit basis.

But, again, we only have these issues at all because the Morrison Government has botched procurement policy so badly. The UK, Canada, and other European countries have been able to refine their rollouts as the AZ data has ebbed and flowed, bolstering confidence and ensuring they keep vaccine hesitancy is held to a minimum.

In Australia, Morrison Government bumbling is generating a bull market in skepticism, which is presumably what this new review is aimed at fighting.

Meanwhile, you wouldn’t know that the Berejiklian Government is of the same political party as the Morrison Government. It’s at war with it:

Jeez.

David Llewellyn-Smith
Latest posts by David Llewellyn-Smith (see all)

Comments

  2. NorthMEMBER

    The only review the Morrison Government is interested in is one which works out how to re-spin why an LNP crony working at AZ continues to receive massive government $ for supplying a 3rd rate vaccine.

    • happy valleyMEMBER

      Don’t you worry about that – SFM, the world’s best spinner of BS, will come up with a cliche to cover the debacle/game of mates. Surely, Labor has to responsible for this in some meaningful way?

      BTW, wonder what SFM’s COVID Commission has got up to without the great unwashed being told anything? Operational matters, you know – so buzz off? –

    • rustyMEMBER

      Thats just political bunkum, the AZ vaccine is profitless. No one makes any money, because there is none to be made!!! All the vaccines use entirely different basis due to use of anti-bodies, stem cells or mRNA. The best appear to be the Russian Sputnik V or the Pfizer, but we are talking about minutiae in differences, and we wont’t know exactly until year or two down the track.

      Yes, AstraZeneca has been related to blood clots in the brain with younger females, hence in the UK, all women under 30 will take the Moderna vaccine instead. We don’t know if AZ is responsible, because Covid causes blood clots and all the others as well. Statistics suggest that the risk is the same that from a long-haul flight. To put into perspective the incidence of serious blood clots from the contraceptive pill is 0.6% and incidence from AZ vaccine is 0.00017% with no causality proven.

      But critically, AZ relies on antibodies as a form of protection (that’s why it is so effective initially, possibly better than all other on market). But this is the kicker, for reasons unknown, Covid antibodies disappear after six months naturally. There is evidence that the same occurs using the AZ vaccine. Meaning you will need six monthly booster AZ jabs. Which is no bad thing in the long run, because new variants will inevitably surface.

      So the truth is, all the current vaccines will be less effective coming up anyways… in any case, please stop the boring political insinuations, it just highlights bias, not information.

  6. DivyaMEMBER

    Longer it takes to get the jab, the better. Who knows how many more skeletons in this vaccine closet. There’s buckleys chance they followed all the correct scientific discovery and testing processes to verify these vaccines to the same extent as all the other ones previously.

    • GarethMEMBER

      Even if they did follow all protocols there is simply not enough runway to understand long term affects. The fact they are also not being held liable for vaccine defects should also concern any person who can see an inherent conflict of interest here around profit and liability. In a commercial/capitalist system these 2 are held in balance with risk reward being traded for a neutral outcome. In this case its extortionist profit with no liability….what could possible go wrong!

  7. StephenMEMBER

    I’ve had an appointment scheduled for this afternoon to get this vaccine for about three weeks. I qualify for phase 1B because of an underlying medical condition (I’m 30). Cancelled this morning. Given the low risk of contracting COVID here, I figure it’s safer to wait and see what the risk factors are when there’s more information (the autoimmune disease I have, or the immunosuppressive medication I take that qualifies me for the vaccine could turn out to be a risk factor for all we know!).

    Really though, I just want the Pfizer vaccine at this point. I’m actually pretty furious that the Federal Government put basically all their eggs in this one basket. I also wasn’t super happy to see in the factsheet that apparently there’s no safety or efficacy data for immunocompromised people with the AstraZeneca vaccine at least either, because that was disqualifying for the clinical trials… So I qualify to get it because of immunosuppressive medication, but they haven’t actually got hard data on whether it’s safe to take while on it…

    • tafka

      Sounds like my wife’s in a similar predicament to you. The most basic risk management principles would suggest pre-ordering more than what was effectively a single yet to proven vaccine option for the entire population of a country. Except for the select few who get the Pfizer (why?)

      I’d love to know if some taxpayer funded expert suggested this at any point but was overruled by the head honchos.

  9. Arthur Schopenhauer

    They are quickly losing any scerrick of trust they had.

    There is a meme in the general community: ‘Why do I need to take the vaccine? It’s unsafe and there is no Covid in Australia.’

    All for one, and none for all.

Leave a reply

You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in now