TOM CONNELL:
Well, the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine is being rolled out of course as of this week. The Government adamant it will roll out and ramp up a lot more next week. There is one caveat coming. It is people with very rare blood clot conditions. So, how many people will that actually affect? How much of a concern is this? Earlier, I spoke with the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly.
[Excerpt]
PAUL KELLY:
It's just a few per million people have this problem. And it's very important to recognise that whilst blood clots themselves are actually fairly common in Australia, clots in the legs people would have heard of, or pulmonary embolism, clots in the lungs, those sort of things are quite common. But what we're talking about in relation to the AstraZeneca vaccine is actually a very, extremely rare type of blood clots, which can be serious if they occur. And so, the advice, very precautionary at this stage, is that people with a history of those particular types of blood clot should seek advice about whether they should receive that particular vaccine. But for the vast majority of Australians, it's perfectly safe and we should continue. That's the vaccine we've got, and the Australian made vaccine, which is rolling out right now right across the country.
TOM CONNELL:
You said seek advice. Just to clarify, anybody getting this vaccine, however they get it, whether it be through 1A, 1B, beyond that, a doctor or pharmacy, is everybody asked a list of questions to check for this type of thing and other potential issues?
PAUL KELLY:
Absolutely. This, as we know all along, has been a non-compulsory rollout, so it's entirely voluntary. And part of that process for wherever people are getting their vaccine, whether it's at a GP surgery, a state and territory clinic, Aboriginal controlled health service or one of our Commonwealth GP respiratory clinics, all of those places, there is a very detailed consent process – the same for people that are getting the [indistinct] service in our aged and disability care areas. So, that's a very important component of it. And seeking history of all sorts of other things, particularly allergy to vaccines, previous reactions to vaccines, and now a specific question around this particular type of blood clots.
TOM CONNELL:
Those production locally, it's not going to hit a million a week straight away. What's your latest advice on when CSL is likely to get to that one million?
PAUL KELLY:
So CSL have absolutely guaranteed that they will get to one million. We don't know exactly the date that will happen, but they are certainly striving towards that amount. We have 800- over 800,000 doses in the first batches that are now being rolled out across Australia and so that's fantastic news. And just to be clear, CSL has done very well in getting the actual product of the vaccine produced. The rate-limiting step, if you like, is actually getting it into the bottles, the so-called fill and finished component. And so, that has been a challenge to get that those numbers up. And we are continuing to explore with CSL, and other companies actually, to see if we can increase that fill and finish component. But the actual vaccine has been made. We've got millions of doses ready to go.
TOM CONNELL:
We've also got, from my understanding, plenty of excess for now in terms of vials, with the hold up right now or the slight delay hasn't been in the vaccine but the rollout. Is there any reason why we couldn't have given some more doses to Papua New Guinea? They've got that 30,000 frontline health care workers and we gave them 8000 doses, and the 2000 wouldn't have affected our rollout, would it?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, so I think up to now, after this week really, the major issue we've had is in supply. And when you think about it, we still have a supply which needs to increase. We’re now into Phase 1B of our rollout here in Australia and there are six million people in 1B added to the several hundred thousand that are in 1A. And so, it's going to take some time to get through that process, and they are still the people at the highest risk of severe infection or highest risk of being exposed to the virus here in Australia. And so, we're rolling that out. We have- as you say, we've given 8000 doses from our overseas supply to go to Papua New Guinea, and we're putting very strong diplomatic efforts into asking the EU to reverse their decision about the other 3.1 million doses that we were promised from AstraZeneca and we’re planning to donate some of that directly to PNG. So, that’s our first effort. Over time, that would be the decision of Government as to whether they would allow some of the Australian manufacturers…
TOM CONNELL:
[Interrupts] From your position in terms of how much it would affect our rollout- as I said, 30,000 frontline healthcare workers. We know how important they are in the crisis they’re facing. Surely another 22 wouldn’t drastically affect our rollout given the numbers you’ve been talking about.
PAUL KELLY:
Well, certainly I’m very concerned about Papua New Guinea and the- what’s happening there in terms of the virus. But these are difficult decisions that need to be made by government in relation to where they put limited resources like vaccines. And so, whilst I certainly would like to be able to vaccinate more people in Papua New Guinea or to assist with that process, we are- we also have our responsibility here in Australia. And so that's something the government will weigh up.
TOM CONNELL:
Okay. Clive Palmer putting out advertisements which include claims that the approval process has been too slow. What would you like to see happen here? Should there be efforts by the government to stop this happening, these advertisements [indistinct]?
PAUL KELLY:
So actually my understanding is that Mr Palmer has been saying it was too quick and not thorough enough, and I could absolutely say to people that are viewing this program, that is not true. The approval process that the two vaccines that have gained approval for use in Australia and have been used over the last few weeks has gone through the same rigorous process that the TGA does for any new drug or vaccine or medical device. And so, they have looked at all of the information from the clinical trials. We've had the advantage of also looking at the real world experience of millions of doses, hundreds of millions of doses now of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine being used around the world. And that's what we've been doing to judge the safety and the efficacy as well as the quality of these vaccines.
TOM CONNELL:
Yeah, and thank you for the correction, I said too slow- too quick, and he was raising those safety concerns. But again, do you think it's important to try to stop this false advertising or does that sort of fuel conspiracy theories?
PAUL KELLY:
So, I understand the TGA is looking at that advertising that's been put out or those messages that have been put out and there are legal options in relation to that to stop that and even to go further in the legal process. So, I'll leave that to the TGA. That's their job. They’re the independent regulators in relation to these matters. And I'm sure they're looking, and indeed I know they're looking at those particular advertisements.
TOM CONNELL:
Just finally – so, we can make AstraZeneca, we can't make mRNA vaccines here in Australia. And the turnaround time for new strains- new vaccines, if you like, is six months for AstraZeneca, six weeks for mRNA, I believe. Would you like to see Australia have the mRNA capability going forward?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, both the mRNA capability as well as the viral vector capability, which is AstraZeneca, is one of the one of the examples of that, are new technologies. We're learning more and more about them. They are really fantastic vaccines, both of them, in terms of their effectiveness as well as their safety profile. The mRNA technology does have advantages of being able to be changed quickly, but the viral vector one can as well. So, I know that AstraZeneca is actually looking at some variants of concern and changing the DNA that's inside that viral vector, just the same as Pfizer and Moderna as two examples of the mRNA technology are also doing the same thing. I think the issue with variants of what we are going to do about them is important. And it's great to see that the vaccine producers are both looking at that. And it may well be that we will need boosters going forward over the coming years as the virus changes, just as we do with our flu vaccine. Whether that will be every year and whether it needs to be repeated remains to be seen. With all of these technologies, of course, it may be quite easy to change the components to look at those variants, but it still does take an enormous amount of time to produce these vaccines. And mRNA vaccines take time as well as the viral vectors.
TOM CONNELL:
Professor Paul Kelly, appreciate your time today. Thank you.
PAUL KELLY:
Thanks Tom.
[End of excerpt]
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