BEN FORDHAM:
Professor Michael Kidd is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia, and the Professor's on the line. Good morning to you.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Good morning, Ben. How are you?
BEN FORDHAM:
Good. Thank you very much for joining us. I know that the health authorities have never supported the idea of blanket closures when it comes to borders. Do we need to come up with a solution like a national permit system to get around that?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well certainly we've seen the huge frustrations of so many people across Australia who've experienced, over recent weeks especially, with the, with the restrictions from state to state and territory to territory. The Commonwealth does have a definition of a hot spot which determines when a serious outbreak has occurred and when Commonwealth support is to be applied to that area. But as you rightly point out, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee doesn't make recommendations about borders.
BEN FORDHAM:
Can I just ask you about an issue that came across my desk yesterday when a GP mentioned to my wife that - she's not an anti-vaxxer by any stretch - but she said, look, I'd just be a little bit careful if you are planning on having any more children or for any of your friends who might be pregnant, I'd be a little bit careful about receiving the COVID vaccination when it becomes available. Have you got a view on that?
MICHAEL KIDD:
This is a really important question because many of the people in the top priority group, which includes people working in health care, in aged care, working in quarantine on our borders are women who are of childbearing age. Some of those women, of course, will be pregnant; some of those women will be breastfeeding. The Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia's regulator for medications and for vaccines, is assessing each of the vaccine candidates for COVID-19, part of that assessment is making recommendations about whether the vaccine - each individual vaccine - will be safe and appropriate to use in women who are pregnant or who are breastfeeding. So we need to wait and see what are the recommendations that come through from that very rigorous assessment process.
BEN FORDHAM:
So, by the sounds of things, that's entirely reasonable advice that that GP would be offering? It's in line with the official TGA advice?
MICHAEL KIDD:
We need, we need to wait and see what the TGA tells us that's right about, about the safety and appropriateness of the vaccine. Of course, the TGA will be looking at the research which has come through at the moment on each of these vaccines, of the populations which have received the vaccines so far in trials overseas. And we'll be making recommendations about different groups of people, which includes children, it may include the elderly as well as women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
BEN FORDHAM:
One of the vaccines we have available to us is the Pfizer vaccine, and I see that the current WHO advice for Pfizer is, and I quote: due to insufficient data, WHO does not recommend the Pfizer vaccination for pregnant women at this time. Would that be pretty standard on a vaccination that hasn't had rigorous long term testing?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, certainly the- that is one of the key issues that the Therapeutic Goods Administration looks at for any vaccine or for any medications. And of course, we are very cautious about, about the recommendations and ensuring the safety of vaccines or of any medicines before recommendations are made to use these in women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
BEN FORDHAM:
And just for those pregnant women, or women of childbearing age, can they expect that we will get more updates, more advice as we get closer to vaccine time?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes, absolutely. This, as I say, will be a core part of the advice which comes out from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
BEN FORDHAM:
We really appreciate you jumping on the line this morning, Professor. Thank you.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thanks so much, Ben.
BEN FORDHAM:
Professor Michael Kidd, the nation's Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
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