MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Let's go now to John Skeritt, he's the- not that, another empty chair. This one's not empty, thankfully. John Skerritt from the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Thank you for joining us. So, what do you make of these revelations - the US officials a bit cranky with AstraZeneca for, in their words, using outdated and potentially misleading data regarding this vaccine?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Good morning, Michael. We're not particularly worried because, by law, we have to get the complete, unredacted set of data. In fact, it's a contractual requirement when we approved the product. That will come sometime during April. This was interim data that was released. So we will get the data, warts and all. I would say what was released was encouraging, and in fact, it was only for a vaccination gap of four weeks. And what's been found and what we're recommending in Australia is actually a 12-week vaccination gap. And with the 12-week vaccination gap, there isn't really a significant efficacy difference between the two vaccines we have.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
In the words of one of the federal officials quoted in The Washington Post, these misleading results or misleading data is the equivalent of quote: Telling your mother you got an A in a course when you got an A in the first quiz, but a C in the overall course. And just picking up what Norman Swan told us - this doesn't do well for well-placed efforts by the TGA, by other arms of the Federal Government to overcome that vaccine hesitancy in Australia?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, we'll get the whole course results. We will get hundreds, in fact, we'll probably get thousands of pages of data. I'm expecting not long after Easter, that will be the warts and all view. And we will publicly report our assessment of that data, and we'll see how it looks. We haven't seen the data the Americans are talking about, but we will get everything because as I've said, they've made a legally binding commitment to do that when we approved the product.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Now, we understand that the TGA had a big meeting last night concerning those concerns about blood clots and ties with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which European regulators have said, no such link. What was the outcome of that meeting here, if that happened?
JOHN SKERRITT:
So, this was a meeting with ATAGI - the Government's advisory group on immunisation. We also brought in a number of blood experts, clotting experts, haematologists. And they pored over the data in some detail. The meeting went well into the evening. And their conclusion, essentially was - firstly, there's no evidence of cause and effect. Secondly - it is rare. There is, in a rare group of people, and one or two in a million. So again, your chances of winning Lotto or the lottery is higher. But still, in that one or two in a million people who have certain conditions such as a condition called HIT, you should talk with your doctor ahead of being vaccinated. But these are extremely rare cases. We've seen none of them in Australia and there's no evidence that people with clotting problems writ large, should be concerned about either vaccine.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Just about out of time, John Skerritt. Let's turn to the approval of the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines. Obviously a big step forward for Australia's fight against the virus?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Yes, it is. 830,000 released, but they're getting on the trucks and planes as I speak to you. There will be more coming in every week and really, the Australian manufacture will be the back one of the vaccine operation in the next few months. And so we're very fortunate the product is of equal quality to the global product.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
John Skeritt from the TGA, thank you so much for talking to us this morning.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Thank you, Michael.
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