KARL STEFANOVIC:
Australia will not pause its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite concerns in Europe over a feared link between 37 cases of blood clots and the jab.
ALLISON LANGDON:
It's caused a war of words in Canberra too, with Matt Canavan breaking with the party line, that the vaccine most Australians will receive is safe. So Professor John Skerritt from the Therapeutic Goods Administration is joining us now from Canberra. Thanks for your time this morning. It's become a big issue, this. It's a big debate. Lots of people are confused and the main question is - is it safe?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Good morning, Ally. We don't have any evidence at this stage that rollout should be paused. We are obviously working very closely with the Europeans and other countries. In fact, very late last night, many of us were on international video conferences with many other countries. I think it's important to realise that the countries that have rolled out the largest number of these vaccines, such as the British and interestingly, the Saudi Arabians have rolled out a million of these doses, have not seen any of these cases.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
To be fair to Matt Canavan, what he was actually saying - he wasn't saying it's not safe, he was saying let's wait and see. There's nothing wrong with just waiting a little while to see what happens. Do you support the Government's decision to continue with the rollout as planned in that case?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Certainly. Sadly, there'll be many more investigations of this type, as there is for every single vaccine. So every vaccine that's introduced, you have patients who maybe a week later had a heart attack, a fortnight later had a stroke and that's just in the normal course, especially if you're giving a vaccine to elderly people or to people who are sick. Statistically, a lot of people have these other conditions. Now, if we paused the vaccination program every time coincidentally there was a medical incident like this, there would be no vaccination program at all. And it would be denting to public confidence. What's better is to say what we do and don't know at this stage and to indicate that we are taking it seriously, that we're working closely with the international authorities.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Have you spoken to European health authorities and do you think the actions of some countries has been an overreaction?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Oh yes. We certainly have spoken with the European health authorities, as recently as 11 o'clock last night, several of us were talking to them. Not only the European Medicines Agency which is still advocating continuing the vaccination program, and of course, the British. But we've also spoken last night to some of these individual countries that have paused. Now, they've taken what we believe is perhaps an excessively conservative approach but it is their prerogative to do so. I mean, it's a national right they have but we don't believe that the evidence warrants doing it in Australia.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Does the TGA - I mean, when you're looking at all these things, you mentioned before that there is stuff that we do know and stuff that we don't. What are the things we don't know?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well we don't know whether there's any evidence of cause and effect here. So, the cases that have - and it's, again, just a couple of countries where these cases appeared - Denmark, Germany and maybe Norway. And, again, they haven't been the biggest users of this vaccine. So when you've had 11 million in the UK, a million in Saudi, you're getting rollout in Canada, you're getting rollout in other parts of Asia, these countries have found clotting - and clotting's common. They've found clotting, an unusual form of clotting where your platelets are low. But even so, we've got 17,000 people who go to their doctor or hospital every year with clotting problems. And so unusual forms might be a thousand times of those 17,000. So, when something might happen a thousand times a year in Australia, you wouldn't call it rare. And, again, the chance of it just being a coincidence is very high. But we're taking it very seriously.
ALLISON LANGDON:
So, is there any health advice for certain groups in the community, say, that you're at risk of blood clots, say you suffered deep vein thrombosis previously; is that something you should be cautious or aware of before getting the AstraZeneca jab?
JOHN SKERRITT:
No, we don't believe it will exacerbate it because actually, those people who have, say, had either a heart attack or have had DVT or clotting diseases, are often already on blood thinners. So if anything, they might be very well be protected against any risk. So, there's not what we call a contraindication, there's not a thing saying do not take the vaccine. We do say to anyone with serious medical history, to have a chat with your vaccinator or your GP or anyone to become reassured. But there isn't a warning against those people having these vaccines.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Is there a need for the Government then, if you are continuing to expedite this process of vaccination, when you consider that we are ranked about 94 in the world as far as this rollout goes?
JOHN SKERRITT:
So the Government is just this morning announcing how people in what they call Phase 1B can access their vaccines. You can go to health.gov.au and find out more information about where your local GP or GP respiratory clinic can provide those vaccinations. This 1B group involves the elderly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over a certain age and people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, chronic pulmonary disease and a long list of chronic diseases, up to 6 million Australians. So, as of today and starting with the vaccinations next Monday, that second stage of the rollout is starting.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Alright. And we'll hear more details from the Government on that today. John, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We really appreciate your time.
JOHN SKERRITT:
You will.
ALLISON LANGDON:
You're a busy man. Thanks.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Thanks very much. Thanks very much.