TOM CONNELL:
Professor John Skerritt, thanks for your time. So, the official approval of AstraZeneca, these first four batches, is there any difference between this vaccine then? And the AstraZeneca we've already been using.
JOHN SKERRITT:
No. The main- well, except that the size of the bottle is different. So, some of the AstraZeneca bottles come in different sizes with different numbers of doses. But the- What's important is what goes into the arm, and part of our approval is to show into tests that it's exactly the same as the AstraZeneca vaccine from overseas.
TOM CONNELL:
And the overall approval process, you know, obviously there was a huge urgency for this. Was there any part of the process that was different to previous vaccines?
JOHN SKERRITT:
The main part of the process was that our staff, essentially, worked seven days a week. And it's ironical- ironic that each of our approvals seems to have come late at night or on a weekend - but that just reflects in the fact that we've had teams stood up around the clock working on this. So, we've tested the vaccine in our laboratories, and we've scrutinised the documentation provided by the company in detail. We test all batches of vaccines, of all sorts of vaccines - not just COVID vaccines.
TOM CONNELL:
Now, efficacy. The latest figures from trials done in the US were 79 per cent - that was prevention of symptomatic illness. For serious illness it was, well essentially, 100 - basically all serious illness. There has been some doubt cast on these figures - not the safety, but the figures by US authorities. What figures are you working to on efficacy?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, the other thing with the 79 per cent is that these were figures from doses given four weeks apart, and in fact, we in Australia recommend that the doses be given 12 weeks apart because that seems to push the efficacy up by another 10 per cent. There's been results from trials in Scotland - not just clinical trials, but real world experience - with many hundreds of thousands, indeed over a million patients that have shown the efficacy heads towards 90. So, we actually believe the efficacy of the two vaccines is similar.
TOM CONNELL:
So, you're saying Pfizer, AstraZeneca, you don't see them as substantially different in terms of their efficacy?
JOHN SKERRITT:
When the Astra-Zeneca is given 12 weeks apart, rather than three or four weeks apart, we see the efficacy results being very similar, and this is the experience in the UK in particular where they've published results with, not just clinical trials, but with real world populations including, including the elderly.
TOM CONNELL:
So, let's talk about vaccine hesitancy then. How much of an issue do you think that will be for COVID vaccines, but AstraZeneca in particular?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, one of the challenges is that we need to be transparent, and so, explaining the issues with blood clotting - although it appears that there hasn't been any confirmed cause and effect, explaining issues earlier on with the Pfizer vaccine and deaths in aged care in Norway back in January I think it was - all these things are part of transparency that we expect in society. The trouble is that people will remember those issues, and even if they're resolved they can lead to hesitancy.
So, communicating the importance of vaccination, so we can get our lives and society back to normal, is really a responsibility not just of government, but of media and everyone else who has a role in society.
TOM CONNELL:
And what conversations at dinner tables, family, WhatsApp groups, whatever it might be, that anyone expressing concerns - it's not a question of shouting them down but trying to reassure them?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Definitely not. So, you listen carefully to people. So for example, with clotting I was asked- I was speaking at a community event in rural New South Wales on the weekend, 2000 people, and I was asked by about 12 people, for example, hey, I have a clotting disorder, should I still get vaccinated? And the answer is, yes. It's very rare, one in a million, maybe two in a million, and it even still hasn't been associated, that condition that has appeared in Europe. And so, having those discussions, not just saying, look, you don't know what you're talking about, you're being silly, is really important. It's important to have respectful discussions, to listen to people's concerns, and then, hopefully, to allay those concerns.
TOM CONNELL:
So, what is the official advice for someone with a clotting disorder? Perhaps it's to do with a platelet blood, blood count? Is that something they should discuss with their GP as to whether this would be appropriate?
JOHN SKERRITT:
So, the advice - and ATAGI, which is the Government's committee - will be putting advice later in the day. We had a meeting that went into last night, and the view of that meeting was that people with, what I call mainstream, the overwhelming majority of clotting disorders, have nothing to fear from either vaccine. There's a couple of rare conditions - one for example, is called HIT, and these are very rare. And if you have one of those particular conditions, have a discussion with your doctor. Now, that will be coming out in the advice, but the main message is that clotting disorders are quite common, and, the overwhelming majority of people with clotting disorders do not need to do anything differently - they can go ahead and have the vaccine.
TOM CONNELL:
[Indistinct] the vaccine, perhaps some MP's will do anything for a headline. Were you more frustrated by European countries pausing the roll-out, again, with no- seemingly, no real evidence?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, it's their sovereign right to pause. But what's been learnt globally is that if you pause a vaccination campaign, it can literally have deadly consequences. So, a couple of years ago, in Samoa, in the Pacific, in our part of the world, there was a stuff-up, and nurses accidentally put a poison in with measles, mumps, rubella vaccine for kiddies. And so they paused the campaign. By the time they started that campaign up again 83 children, 83 children and toddlers had died of measles. Measles is a totally preventable vac- totally preventable condition - none of those children should have died. So, you only pause a vaccine program if you have very strong evidence that there's a very major problem. And so we do believe that, sadly, there will be consequences for COVID cases and fatalities in Europe, because of those pauses.
TOM CONNELL:
Professor John Skerritt, I know it's busy so I appreciate your time today. Thank you
JOHN SKERRITT:
Thanks very much.
[End of excerpt]
TOM CONNELL:
So, another milestone there in the vaccine roll-out.
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