DAVID KOCH:
The first shipment of extra Pfizer vaccines has arrived in Australia from the UK. It's part of a vaccine swap deal to deliver 4 million doses, which are nearing their expiry date. Australia is expected to return the favour in the months ahead. Authorities hope the newly available doses will supercharge our vaccine rollout for the end of the year. The nation is currently on track to fully vaccinate 70 per cent of the eligible population by the start of November, 80 per cent by 23 November. Joining me now is the man coordinating the rollout, Lieutenant General John Frewen.
John, thanks you're your time again. Including these extra doses from the UK, how many Pfizer jabs will Australians have access to this month?
JOHN FREWEN:
Look Kochie, there's going to be twice as many as we had last month. So this looks like what we were anticipating October to be now. So it's really great news for the rollout and is really going to help us to accelerate getting people vaccinated.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Now, we've got these doses because they're nearing their expiry dates. What does that mean? Is there any risk we won't be able to use them all in time? Or are they a bit weaker because they're near their expiry date? Just explain it to us.
JOHN FREWEN:
No, these are- these vaccines are perfectly good, Kochie. That was part of the negotiations. The expiry dates of these vaccinations go out until the end of November so there's absolutely plenty of time to get these administered.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Tell us about AstraZeneca now at the moment. What role is it going to play in our future vaccination strategy because basically its brand has been trashed, hasn't it? Even though all of the data coming out now says it's just as effective as other brands and all the side-effects are really no greater.
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah, no look, it is a fantastic vaccine and has been a fantastic vaccine and has been a fantastic vaccine throughout, Kochie. It was unfortunate that the reputation took some hits but since the second ATAGI ruling, there's been more than 6 million doses administered here in Australia and since the Prime Minister opened up AstraZeneca to the under 40s, more than 600,000 of them have taken AstraZeneca first dose. So there is still a range of people who are yet to get their second dose of AstraZeneca, which of course I encourage them to do, and there will still be people who come forward to have AstraZeneca as opportunities permit, remembering the best vaccine is the one you can get today.
DAVID KOCH:
Yeah, okay. So now we've got Moderna coming in, when is it? Later this month as well. How is that different and frankly, why do we need another choice? Isn't it just confusing?
JOHN FREWEN:
Well, look, remember that this time last year we still didn't know whether there would be any effective vaccines for COVID, so the Government put in place strategies to procure vaccines that would play out through the course of this year. Now, Moderna is another mRNA vaccine, like the Pfizer vaccine. It's been on order all year. We've been looking forward to it turning up. Now, the strategy we've got for Moderna is that is what will go through pharmacies. So right now the pharmacies, almost 3000 of them, have been doing AstraZeneca.
DAVID KOCH:
Right.
JOHN FREWEN:
So we will put the Moderna through the pharmacies so that'll keep the logistics, sort of, clean for us. But it's another choice for people and we're really excited about the pharmacies being able to administer both AstraZeneca and an mRNA vaccine.
DAVID KOCH:
Why should we have a choice? Most people wouldn't realise there are seven different flu vaccines injected to us this year and we just took what we were given.
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah, well, I mean, this has been a new territory, this pandemic. You know, these are very new vaccines so we've just had to play the cards as they've come this year. But I think it's fantastic now that we've got access to all of these vaccines and we've got systems in place. There's almost 9500 places where people can go and get vaccines now and with this additional Pfizer and with Moderna coming online from- in the next couple of weeks, that's more choice and if that's what it takes to get people across the line, then I'm just pleased people will be getting vaccinated.
DAVID KOCH:
Okay. Alright, John. Thanks for your time.
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