PETER STEFANOVIC:
And joining us live now is Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd. Professor, good to see you again. So we've got the first Australian vaccines, they're on the trucks; they're on their way. Where are they heading first?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So the first four batches of the CSL-produced AstraZeneca vaccine approved yesterday, over 800,000 doses, half those doses we'll be holding back as contingency to make sure we're able to complete people's full course of vaccination, the two doses. But the other doses will be heading out over the coming week to general practices across the country, to Aboriginal health services, and to the Commonwealth funded-GP led respiratory clinics around the country.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So just to clarify, what is the target right now?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So the target at the moment, we have 250,000 doses that we've distributed this week that will be rising to 400,000 doses a week over the next two to three weeks. But then we'll be rapidly scaling up as CSL comes into full production. And as you know, we're expecting CSL to deliver a minimum of a million doses a week over the coming weeks.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Every target, though, has been missed so far. Professor, what makes you think that these next targets will be achieved?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well the challenge, of course, that we've had during the first three to four weeks of rolling out the vaccine has been the challenges of supply from overseas, and our dependence on shipments from overseas, and countries overseas being willing to release those shipments to us. Now, of course, with the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine, we no longer have these challenges here in Australia. We're in a very fortunate position.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Do you think those overseas challenges were underestimated?
MICHAEL KIDD:
No, I think it's very difficult in a pandemic to predict exactly what's going to happen. And of course we've seen that in each of our lives over the last year. There are twists and turns associated with living through a pandemic, and I guess we can expect those to continue until this pandemic is over.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Overnight, the European Union and the United Kingdom have agreed to set aside their differences. Do you believe that that will happen? And if so, what does that mean for Australia and our order that's still in place?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So that's probably beyond my brief as Deputy Chief Medical Officer - the international relations in Europe. But clearly, we have contracts between the Australian Government and the distributors of the Pfizer vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine overseas. We're still expecting delivery of those vaccines throughout the coming year. But the time frame, as you're indicating, Peter, is a little uncertain.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
It's unlikely to stop nationalism, though. When the going gets tough, different countries are going to keep what they need for their own people, right? Moving forward, that's going to continue.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, I think that what we're seeing in many other countries, including in many of the countries of Europe, is a very different situation to what we're experiencing in Australia at the moment. Many countries with continuing very high levels of infection with COVID-19, overwhelmed healthcare systems, and very high numbers of deaths occurring each day. So totally understandable that individual countries would wish to be protecting the most vulnerable people in their own populations at what is a very challenging time.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
We can't bank on those vaccines coming for PNG, can we?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, certainly we have already distributed, of course, some vaccine from Australia to PNG - over 8000 doses to start immunising, particularly the health care workforce, in PNG. As Minister Greg Hunt said in his press conference yesterday, we hope that we will receive those additional doses, which of course are already contracted and on order, to come into PNG as well, but we've got to wait and see over the next few days. But as you're implying, the situation in Papua New Guinea is also very serious and we're very concerned about what's happening in our nearest neighbour.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, I know there's doses that are on the way. But I mean, we've- there's an order for a million. And what I'm asking is, can you bank on the rest of them? Because that's a whole lot.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, look, I hope that that order of a million will be honoured, because the situation in Papua New Guinea is very serious, and it's really important that we're able to support countries like Papua New Guinea which are facing the terrible impacts of COVID-19.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Can I ask, I'm curious about why infections are rising? It's away from Australia, but in many countries in Europe, and also in many states in the United States as well, they're actually seeing rises in cases despite the huge roll out of vaccines. Why would that be?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, I think there are obviously a number of factors behind this, Peter. But one of the important factors is that in some places restrictions have been lifted too early, and as a consequence, people therefore relax, think everything is back to normal, they start to stop doing the physical distancing measures, which, of course, we've all grown very used to over the last 12 months. And then you get a resurgence of infections occurring.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Gotcha. All right. Professor Michael Kidd, thanks for your time, as always. We'll talk to you soon.
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