NATALIE BARR:
All Australian adults will now be able to get the AstraZeneca vaccine through their GPs who will be protected under a new indemnity scheme. The changes come after the Government held emergency talks last night.
DAVID KOCH:
National Cabinet has also made the COVID vaccine mandatory for aged care workers, as well as hotel quarantine staff and people involved in transporting international arrivals.
NATALIE BARR:
For more, we're joined by Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly. Good morning to you.
PAUL KELLY:
Morning, Nat.
NATALIE BARR:
First of all, we were told that AstraZeneca was only recommended to over 50s, then it was only recommended to over 60s. Now, you're saying that anyone younger should have it. Why will they have the confidence to want it?
PAUL KELLY:
Well just to clarify that, that's not quite correct, that AstraZeneca has always been registered for use for anyone over the age of 18.
NATALIE BARR:
[Talks over] Yes, but not recommended.
PAUL KELLY:
So the ATAGI advice is very clear, the preferred option for now over- under 60s is the Pfizer jab, they're the two that we have available. But AstraZeneca has been available right throughout and people have been getting it, actually, right down to the age of 40. Now, as of last- today, we'll be rolling it out for younger people if they want to. And they can have that - as always been the case - have that conversation with their GP, make that risk and benefit, informed consent and then go from there.
NATALIE BARR:
But Professor- sorry, when the Government says, like the Government is this big entity. And when the Government says you shouldn't have it or it's recommended or whatever wording you want, until you're over 60, it says to the rest of the nation that it's not good for younger people, surely.
DAVID KOCH:
You've spooked everyone.
NATALIE BARR:
Yes.
PAUL KELLY:
So as we've explained throughout, we always take that medical advice, in this case from the ATAGI group, they're the experts on immunisation. That's where I go from my advice on immunisation. They really are Australia's experts, some of them the world's expert on these matters. So they did that work over the last few weeks and months, and every week they've been looking at that risk-benefit equation. If we had a large outbreak in Australia, and we've seen all the news about what's happening around Australia at the moment, we've got actually five jurisdictions affected, that can change that risk-benefit equation. And so we'll be asking ATAGI again to look at that. But at the moment, the preference is for- from that group to have Pfizer for under 60s, but it is not a ban on AstraZeneca at all.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Every state premier bases their individual decision on, they say, we're basing this decision on the best medical advice. The problem is, they're all making different decisions. What's the medical advice they're getting? Do they go to you? Do they go to the best in the business, the federal Chief Health Officer? Who do they depend on?
PAUL KELLY:
Well, you know, we have a federation, Kochie, so each state have elected officials, they have their own medical advice. In this case- in this regard, the chief medical ...
DAVID KOCH:
[Talks over] But it's all different. You would hope it would be all the same.
PAUL KELLY:
...chief health officers in each state. Well, I don't think it's that different when you look at it. I mean, there's a scale of when people are doing lockdowns in terms of their risk appetite in relation to this. And you can see, let's take Darwin for example, they haven't had a case right throughout this pandemic until this week. They've suddenly got a whole bunch of stuff they're dealing with, the concerning link with the Buffalo Club. I've known that club quite well, it's a big club, it's very busy, people would have been very close to each other so the risk of that bursting out into the Darwin community is high. And so they've taken that action as they see fit, and I think that local response is important.
DAVID KOCH:
Alright. Okay. Paul Kelly, thanks for joining us.
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