MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
And this morning, we're joined by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd. Professor, good morning. Thank you for your time.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Good morning, Mike. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
First of all, if I can, tell us a little bit about your role as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer [indistinct].
MICHAEL KIDD:
Certainly. So, as Deputy Chief Medical Officer, I'm one of the health professionals working with the Australian Government Department of Health, working obviously on the nation's COVID-19 response. My specific areas of focus have been particularly on our response through primary care, through general practice and other primary care health services, the community based health services. And of course, that includes the rollout of our vaccine occurring through general practices and other primary care sites right across the country.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
So, Professor, how is the vaccine rollout going? I mean, we are hearing that it's not probably going as quickly as possible.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Look, today is a really important day in the history of the pandemic in Australia because we're starting the rollout in Phase 1B. And this week, over 250,000 doses of the vaccine have been distributed out to general practices right across Australia and people will start receiving those doses over the coming days. Some people, of course, will be getting their first dose today. This rollout of Phase 1B is going to happen over the next two to three months and will involve 6 million people, everyone aged 70 and above in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 55 and above, any adults of any age with severe chronic disease or disability putting them at risk of COVID-19, and a number of essential health care and other workers as well. So it's rolling out well. And we'll follow through over the coming weeks.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
How many Tasmanians do you know have received the jab so far?
MICHAEL KIDD:
I can't tell you how many people in Tasmania have received a dose of the vaccine, but I can get the team in the health department to get those figures to you.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Will everyone sort of get their two doses by the end of the year, do you think, Professor?
MICHAEL KIDD:
I think that's quite likely. Originally, we were hoping to have the full vaccination course by the end of October. But then the guidance came through with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which of course is the backbone of our vaccination program in Australia, but it works best if you have a gap of 12 weeks between the first and the last dose. So it's going to be important that we push things back by another 12 weeks, which takes us probably to the end of the year.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
I have just received a text that said- and said I believe it's 10,000 in Tassie so far.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Ten thousand from Tasmania, fantastic. And that, of course, at the moment, we've been vaccinating people in residential aged care facilities, the residents and the staff, and in disability care facilities in the state, as well as the hubs which the state government has established to vaccinate people working in quarantine and Border Force workers, and also our frontline healthcare workers in the state.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
And professor, 36 Tasmanian GP clinics will be able to administer the jab from today. But we've had a federal Labor MP, Brian Mitchell, down here complaining that his large electorate of Lyons was only given five outlets, meaning vulnerable people will have to drive over an hour to access the jab, whereas nearby Liberal seats got at least 10 clinics which are administering the vaccine. Now, obviously, some of that will come down to a larger population in those areas. But tell us how each GP site is chosen.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes. So we put out a call of expressions of interest to general practices right across Australia. Every general practise which is accredited to the standards of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is eligible to be involved in the vaccine rollout. We're expecting about 2000 general practises across Australia would put up their hand. We actually had over 4500 general practices which have said they would like to be involved in the rollout. And so, at the moment, we have 1000 practices which will be starting the rollout this week, but that will scale up to 4500 practices over the next four weeks. So my advice to people is just be patient. There's no rush to get the vaccine. If you're in group 1B, you've got over the next two to three months to get the first shot of your vaccine. And there will be another 3500 sites which will be released on the national website over the coming four weeks.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Are they- is there, just a question if you hopefully can answer, does there have to be a certain number of clinics in a certain area?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So, obviously, we've been dependent on practices volunteering and putting up their hands. But, we've also been very focused on making sure that we have equitable distribution of the vaccine, right across Australia and this has been a core feature of our response to the pandemic. When we set up the Commonwealth funded general practice-led respiratory clinics, which have been doing a lot of the COVID-19 testing across the country. We set up 150 of those and they were evenly distributed right across the country and we're doing the same with the rollout of the GP clinics. If there's only one clinic in a certain area, they will get a much larger number of vaccines than if you're in a clinic where there are several clinics in the local suburb which are getting the vaccine. We want to make sure that we have [indistinct] distribution; so people, no matter where they are in Australia, are going to be able to get access to this vaccine. So, my advice to your listeners, Mike, if they look on the website today and they can't find anywhere that's close to them, have another look in three to four weeks and you'll- most likely you'll find that there are additional practises quite close to where you live.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
If I can, which website is it? Health.gov or coronavirus.tas?
MICHAEL KIDD:
It's health.gov.au. So, it's the Australian Government Department of Health website. The very top item is the vaccine eligibility checker. You open that up and you just put in your details and it tells you which phase you are in and then it takes you to, by postcode, you put in your postcode and it shows you all the sites near to you, where you can get the vaccine.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Tassie has received just two Commonwealth COVID vaccine respiratory clinics, one in Launceston and St Helens. In the context of our more vulnerable population here, what do you think the reasoning was behind this?
MICHAEL KIDD:
So, the decisions about where the clinics were going to be established was conducted in consultation with the Primary Health Network in Tasmania, which was looking at where the population need was going to be greatest, and also, coordinating with the clinics which were established - this is the initial testing clinics - established by the State Government. So, we wanted to make sure that there was some overlap between what the State Government was doing and what the Commonwealth was funding. And that's why the clinics have been established where they are.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Actually, we've had a couple of listeners call in to Tasmania Talk, saying the GPS they've called, their own GP's, not many- not much information is getting to those GPS and they felt that their own GP was confused. So, I guess given the challenges being faced by GP clinics, who will struggle to vaccinate their own patients, much less the general public, is- I mean, how do you feel Tasmania is well placed for the rollout?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Look, I think Tasmania is very well placed for the rollout because Tasmania has a very strong system of general practice. You have many wonderful general practitioners right across the state. They're supported by amazing general practice nurses and of course, the nurses will be actively involved in the vaccination program, as they are with our childhood immunisation programs and our annual influenza vaccination program as well. So, again, we've just got to let the program settle in over the coming week. But, as I say, there'll be more and more practitioners coming online over the next three to four weeks.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Now, there's obviously been quite a few concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine, you know, blood clots with some European countries temporarily suspending the vaccine. That's changed. I believe that's been resolved. And the UK now has issues with the latest variant and concerns the vaccine won't be good enough. Have we identified those problems, Professor?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Yes, we have. So, we're following very closely with the reports from Europe and as you say, the European regulator has now come out with its very strong statements about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine. There are, of course, still some unknowns which we're learning about as we go along, which, of course, is what we've been doing over the past year, with this unprecedented pandemic that we've all been experiencing. So, there are a few things we don't know about the vaccines. We don't know how each individual vaccine is going to respond to these variants as they appear. What we do know is the best way to prevent variants is to vaccinate the population and have much less circulating virus in the population, which means there's less likelihood of variants appearing. So, it's really important that we continue to roll out a vaccination program at speed, as planned, right across Australia. The other two things we don't know. We don't know how long the immunity from the vaccines lasts. We're going to have to be monitoring that over time. Fortunately, we've got three months of experience from the UK and other countries which started their vaccination programs early as part of their emergency response to the devastating impact that COVID-19 is having in their countries. And the other thing we don't know, we do know that these vaccines are very effective at protecting people from developing severe disease related to COVID-19. Bu, we don't know if people can still be coming from with COVID-19, but be either asymptomatic or have some very mild symptoms, but still able to transmit COVID-19 to other people. And this is why it's so important that everybody receives the vaccine, because until we have everybody protected from COVID-19 in Australia, we're not in a position to open up our borders to the rest of the world.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Will we need boosters, do you think, because of the variants and strains, et cetera? Well, we need a booster down the track?
MICHAEL KIDD:
It's a very good question and at the moment, we don't know. And obviously, we're going to be following what happens with the immune response that individuals get in response to being vaccinated. What we do know is you need two doses of the vaccine. And for the AstraZeneca vaccine, two doses, 12 weeks apart gives you the maximum immune response. But we don't know how long that response will last. And obviously, we'll be finding that out over the coming months as we follow up with research trials looking at people who've been immunised.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
What would you say to those people that say the vaccine isn't compulsory, so therefore I'm not getting the jab?
MICHAEL KIDD:
Well, my advice to people is please get the vaccine. This is our way of tackling this pandemic and of converting COVID-19 from being a very serious and sometimes fatal disease, to being a much milder disease. So, if people don't get the vaccine, they are putting themselves at risk. If we have community transmission of COVID-19, they are also putting their loved ones at risk and the wider community at risk.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Professor Michael Kidd, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, I know you have to go and I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much.
MICHAEL KIDD:
Thanks so much, Mike and thanks to all your listeners.
MIKE O'LOUGHLIN:
Indeed, thank you. And that's Professor Michael Kidd who is in Canberra, of course. Hope that helps with an issue that you may or may not have - health.gov.au is the website.
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