NATALIE BARR:
Well, Australians are being urged to embrace the country's reopening with confidence, like Sam Mac, with 80 per cent of Aussies aged 16 and over now fully vaxxed. It comes after Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, took a swing at WA Premier, Mark McGowan, for refusing to reopen the state's border until the double-vaxxed rate hits 90 per cent.
[Excerpt]
SCOTT MORRISON:
Once you go over 80 per cent and you keep things locked down, you are doing more harm than good to your economy.
[End of excerpt]
DAVID KOCH:
And there's also no word yet on when younger Aussies will get the chance to be vaccinated. The TGA is awaiting further data before it decides whether to approve the Pfizer jab for children aged 5 to 11. And we're joined by Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly. Paul, why is it so important that Australians focus on getting back to normal?
PAUL KELLY:
Morning, Kochie. Morning, Nat. So, look, I think it's very important, we should be confident. We've reached that double 80 figure for the over 16s. The 12 to 15s are not far behind. And the TGA has now got the data from Pfizer for a younger age group as well, they're going through that process. So, look, things are moving ahead, we're very much prepared in terms of our health systems, people should feel confident because of that vaccination rate of getting back to normal.
NATALIE BARR:
So, let's talk about figures. WA says it's done its own modelling and if it opens at 80 per cent, there'll be 100,000 cases. If it waits 'til 90 per cent there'll be less than half that. Do you agree?
PAUL KELLY:
So, look, it's important for everyone to realise that living with COVID-19 means that we will have cases. There's no question, we're re-joining the rest of the world, this has been the reality in the rest of the world, most countries for the past almost two years. So we will have cases. The absolutely crucial point is, for people that are vaccinated, it's very unlikely that those cases will lead to severe disease and we've seen that with our real-world figures from New South Wales overnight, they published those figures for the last few months, demonstrating exactly that. Way, way less severe illness for those that are vaccinated, and that would happen also in WA. WA has- is a little bit behind in terms of the vaccination rollout, but they're rapidly increasing and they should feel confident like the rest of Australia and, you know, what they do with their borders of course is up to the Premier.
DAVID KOCH:
Under 12s will not be vaccinated until 2022 despite Pfizer's clinical trials, as we said before, TGA taking some time. What's behind the delay?
PAUL KELLY:
So, no delay, Kochie. There is a normal process the TGA goes through, they- the company provides information on the basis of those, I must say, rather small clinical trials that have happened in that age group in the US.
DAVID KOCH:
Yeah.
PAUL KELLY:
The United States FDA, the equivalent, has done- have done their work and they've decided to go ahead. And that will give us some real-world experience over the next month or so, to see about any safety concerns that might come up and I think that's really important. As a parent, and I'm sure other parents would agree, you want to have the safest thing for children and so we'll go through that TGA process, the ATAGI process, the double green light, and then we are ready to go.
NATALIE BARR:
Yup. Okay. Paul Kelly, thank you for your time this morning.
PAUL KELLY:
You're welcome.
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