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‘ Snail ’ s pace ’ rollout
People queue at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for their COVID vaccination . Picture : NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw
Epidemiologists warn Australians won ’ t be fully vaccinated by Christmas .
By NCA NewsWire
Leading epidemiologists are warning that Australians will not be fully vaccinated by Christmas , based on the current speed of the sluggish rollout , as Victorians were recently turned away from getting the jab .
The state ’ s struggling vaccination program was blasted as complete “ chaos ”, as officials vow to get more people vaccinated .
Almost 27,500 vaccines were administered on one day in late May , health department figures show .
But epidemiologists say the federal government vaccine rollout is not fast enough and are calling for more vaccination centres and GP clinics to come online .
Former World Health Organization epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said , based on current vaccination rates , everyone would probably only get their first dose by the end of the year .
“ They are trying to ramp it up but it is still going at a snail ’ s pace ,” Esterman said . The University of South Australia professor said nurses and pharmacists should both be given vaccinations , while more mass vaccination centres that operate 24 hours a day should be open .
“ There are queues of six to eight hours of people trying to get a jab ,” he said . “ We simply aren ’ t doing it fast enough .” Deakin University epidemiology chair ,
Catherine Bennett , said Pfizer supplies
needed to be used carefully to ensure there was enough for people in phase 1a and 1b to be inoculated .
Prof Bennett said more GPs were needed to help the rollout , with expressions of interest now open for a further 900 clinics .
“ We really need to aim to get everyone done by the end of the year with at least their first dose ,” she said .
“ That whole idea of waiting , or people individually being cautious , is something that was problematic because caution comes with a cost .
“ We need to have hard dates to aim for with our vaccination .”
Of the 4.2 million doses administered across the country , just over 494,000 have been second doses , according to COVID Live analysis of West Australian health department data .
Fewer than 110,000 second doses have been administered in Victoria .
Scott Morrison said in January that he wanted four million Australians vaccinated by the end of March .
The Prime Minister delayed the deadline before canning national vaccine targets in April , after AstraZeneca was no longer recommended for people aged under 50 .
Health Minister Greg Hunt said an additional 171,000 Covid-19 doses were being delivered to Victoria in early June , as well as an additional 90,000 doses to GPs .
“ We thank them for their work and think they are doing an excellent job ,” Mr Hunt said . “ There is very large inventory available in Victoria in relation to the program .”
State testing commander Jeroen Weimar said the constraint on getting people vaccinated was not the availability of the overwhelmed booking portal – but the fact
We need to have hard dates to aim for with our vaccination .
they can only administer 20,000 a day with the vaccines they currently have .
“ That is a bigger number than we have ever done before , doubling the rate of vaccination we were doing even a few days ago ,” Mr Weimar said .
“ We are able to continue to sustain this rate until we get more vaccines available . “ We will get more people vaccinated .” Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Chris Moy said if Victoria administered all their doses , there may have to be a “ short shift ” to get the state more .
“ Victoria is the hotspot but … you do have to look at the overall war when making decisions ,” Dr Moy said .
More mass vaccination centres were not the silver bullet , according to Dr Moy , who warned against making “ too fast ” changes to the vaccine rollout citing fears of public confusion .
Mum Katherine Fox said the system was ridiculous and deterred people from trying to do the right thing .
“ A country like Australia should be far better organised ,” she said .
Ms Fox , who is over 40 , said she has spent hours waiting to book her vaccination via the Covid hotline but has never gotten through .
“ It takes far too long – you can never get through ,” she said .
“ You don ’ t expect to see chaos like this in Australia .” ■
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