MICHAEL ROWLAND:
And for more on the national vaccine rollout, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd, joins us now from Canberra. Michael Kidd, good morning. So as we sit this morning, everything's going to plan for the start of the rollout from next week?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. Everything is going to plan. The vaccine obviously arrived yesterday, which is very exciting. It's now in a secure location and the Therapeutic Goods Administration is carrying out its processes, its batch testing, making sure that the vaccine is safe and effective and hasn't been affected at all during the shipping process.
That takes approximately a week, and then we'll have the first doses being shipped out to each of those sites in the states and territories where the rollout will happen. And also, we'll have the first doses going out to residential aged care facilities and disability care facilities across the country.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
And take us through the process for the aged care residents, or their family members - what do they need to do to sign consent forms or do whatever, to ensure the vaccinations happen?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. So, each residential aged care facility has been receiving information about the vaccine rollout, and that includes consent information for the residents and for their next of kin to look at and determine whether they are happy to receive the vaccine. The same, of course, applies to the people who are working in those facilities. They'll be offered the vaccines as part of the rollout as well.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
When do you expect all Australians to be vaccinated by?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, as the Prime Minister has said, we anticipate having had the vaccine offered and administered to every Australian who wishes to receive it by the end of October.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Right. Okay. And that's pretty much on track, based on the fact - I mean, we've got 140,000 Pfizer vaccines so far. The CSL-produced AstraZeneca vaccines will start rolling out in the next month or so. You're pretty confident that target will be reached?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. So, we have 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine which are scheduled to come into Australia during this calendar year. And as you say, we're both getting AstraZeneca vaccine from overseas, but also that onshore production, which is under way, producing many more tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
And what's the timetable, as far as you can tell, for the formal approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So, the Therapeutic Goods Administration is continuing its assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine. We're expecting an announcement very soon - I can't give you the exact timeframe - but very soon with that process.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
We had Norman Swan on the show earlier. He reckons 2021 will be the year COVID-19 transforms into nothing more than the common cold. He says the two vaccines will do that. Is that a pretty fair assessment?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Look, I hope that that's the right assessment. And, certainly, these vaccines are changing the landscape with regard to the pandemic. Of course, this pandemic is not over until every person on the planet has been offered the vaccine. So, we have seven billion people who will need to be vaccinated.
Until that time, we are looking at some of the restrictions still being in place. I think it's really important to note, though, Michael, that even though someone may have received the vaccine, they're still going to need to continue to adhere to all the infection prevention and control, and public health measures that they have been adhering to while we rollout the vaccine amongst the entire population.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. And one of the big restrictions [audio skip] a lot of Australians is, of course, the closed borders. Is it still the Government's view, your office's view, that there will be no- effectively no international travel until at least next year?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So, we still have things we need to learn about from these vaccines. What we know from the vaccines is that they do prevent serious illness and death. But what we don't know is whether people can still be infected with COVID-19 and not have symptoms, but transmit COVID-19 to someone else. We don't know how long the immunity lasts from these vaccines either.
So, even though we may have people coming into the country who've been vaccinated, there are still things we're learning about the vaccine. And we'll learn that very quickly, of course, over the coming months, as we have been learning so much over the last year.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
You might recall, Michael, just before we go, in a blaze of publicity, Britain plucked out an older Brit who happened to be called William Shakespeare, of all names, to get the first vaccination. Have we got an older Australian picked out, with cameras rolling, to get the jab first?
MICHAEL KIDD:
I think we're going to have to wait until early next week, and we'll see.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. I'll take that as a yes.
Hey, Michael Kidd, thank you so much. And yeah, we all hope the vaccination rollout goes to plan.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thanks, Michael.
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