LISA MILLAR:
National Cabinet meets today with a speeding up of the booster vaccine program on the agenda as state and federal governments weigh up about how they respond to the Omicron variants. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Sonya Bennett joins us from Canberra. Dr Bennett, good morning and welcome to News Breakfast.
SONYA BENNETT:
Good morning Lisa. Nice to be with you.
LISA MILLAR:
I was just having a look at some reports that have come in over the last few hours from the WHO suggesting that Omicron poses a very high global risk. What- mean- do we know more? Is it a case of every day we're learning more about Omicron?
SONYA BENNETT:
Well, that's certainly what we hope, Lisa, is to learn more about this virus every day, particularly over the next few weeks. I don't know there's a lot more I can tell you today than we knew yesterday. What we do know about Omicron of course is it has been labelled a variant of concern. The reason for that is really it does appear to be highly infectious and transmissible. But what we don't know about it, really, is whether the- how effective vaccines continue to be and the spectrum of illness that Omicron causes, so how severe. But early indications are reassuring. Certainly it does appear that double dosed vaccine continues to protect against severe disease and those cases that have been reporting their clinical symptoms seem to have only mild disease. So, we'll continue to monitor it over the next few weeks. And it'll be critical, that period.
LISA MILLAR:
We've been talking about booster shots, or the third dose, as it's also been called. When does that decision get made and what is going into that kind of reasoning about whether the time frame before the third dose should be shortened?
SONYA BENNETT:
So, as we know, we already have the booster program under way in Australia. So we've got excellent levels of double dose vaccine coverage across the country and the booster dose is already implemented for anyone aged 18 and over, for six months after they finish their second shot. So the Minister has asked ATAGI, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, to look at whether the timing should be brought forward. And the things that they will look at, we do note that other countries are considering the same things, and the UK has just announced they will bring their booster dose forward to three months.
We know that two doses of vaccine do protect very well against severe disease for up to six months. The reasons for looking at an early booster, particularly with a new variant, are really going to be about whether boosting that immune response provides greater protection against this new variant. So, we'll know more about that as we learn about the new variant and its characteristics. And I'm sure ATAGI will look at all of those things.
LISA MILLAR:
Dr Bennett, we've seen Japan and Israel be very quick to sort of shut their borders completely. I know the government says - state governments as well - say they turn to the health advice to determine what they should do with borders. Do you think a 2-week pause on arrivals is going to be enough?
SONYA BENNETT:
I think it's certainly going to be enough for us to understand more about the virus. I think the reason we're seeing differences around the world in response, and not great differences, just marginal, about border closures and the extent of those, is that there's just so many uncertainty around this virus. We don't know. And so it's not surprising that there are some minor differences in decision making. I think what we're done here in Australia is very proportionate and measured and the intent is really to slow any spread of this new variant into Australia whilst we learn more about the virus. We're in a very good position here. As I said, our vaccination coverage is good.
The virus does appear to be showing indications that it causes mild illness in vaccinated people. So it's really just a reminder, whilst we have high vaccine coverage, we still have a large number of people that don't have a single dose. So it's really a reminder for people to consider that because we won't be able to stop this virus at the border. It does look like it's highly transmissible, and we know even with the strictest mitigation measures with Delta, it's a virus. It will get through the borders at some stage and spread. So, just a reminder to people really to consider both getting double dose vaccination. And if you're due for a booster, to really consider to get that as soon as you can.
LISA MILLAR:
Alright. Dr Sonya Bennett, thanks for your time this morning.
SONYA BENNETT:
Thanks Lisa.
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