Showing posts with label COVID-19 vaccine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COVID-19 vaccine. Show all posts

Monday 2 August 2021

About those up to 40,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses withdrawn from rural & regional New South Wales at the end of July 2021.....



In 2021 the New South Wales Higher School Certificate written exams for Year 12 students commence on 19 October and conclude on 12 November.


In Greater Sydney there are est. 52,400 students enrolled in Year 12 and it seems that the NSW Berejiklian Government has been unable to persuade Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison to release enough Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to protect an est. 24,153 of these students living in Western and South Western Sydney during the current highly infectious Delta Variant Outbreak.  Despite the fact that children and adolescents are over represented in the current infection growth within the state and there is as yet no end date in sight for this viral outbreak.


ABC News, 28 July 2021






On 28 July 2021 NSW Health announced that: Up to 40,000 Pfizer doses will be allocated from NSW Health's rural and regional supply of COVID-19 vaccine to help Year 12 students in south west and western Sydney get back to school for face-to-face learning on 16 August.


By 31 July people in regional NSW were beginning to report receiving cancellation notices for scheduled appointments for first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as well as at least one vaccination hub being stripped of Pfizer completely.



Twitter
, retrieved 1 August 2021


One has to wonder about the logistics of the Premier and Health Minister’s plan to first dose vaccinate those approx. 24,153 high school students - who along with their peers are currently studying from home during the Greater Sydney lockdown – over a short window of 18 days.


Given the ever rising infection numbers, people living in rural and regional New South Wales are openly wondering if any thought has been given to the impact on their communities once the Delta Variant firmly establishes itself outside of Greater Sydney.


Friday 30 July 2021

North Coast news you may have missed this week.......

 


NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Wednesday 28 July 2021 that up to 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be redirected from the state's rural and regional COVID-19 vaccine supply to help Year 12 students in some of Sydney's worst-affected suburbs get back to school for face-to-face learning.


But with several COVID-19 cases in regional towns, including Coffs Harbour, Orange and the Central Coast, residents reacted cautiously to the announcement. 


"There are frontline health care workers who [still] haven't been vaccinated [in regional areas]," Rural Doctors Association of Australia's CEO Peta Rutherford said. 


"We just say it with warning — if they're moving the vaccines into Sydney, we would expect, should there be an outbreak, that the Premier is prepared to move Sydney vaccines to a rural town if required." 


On the Mid North Coast, the mayor of Nambucca Heads, Rhonda Hoban, said despite no COVID-19 cases so far, there were a lot of vulnerable people in the community still waiting to be vaccinated. 


"We've got three times the state average of people over the age of 65, a high Indigenous population and a significantly higher than average number of people who suffer chronic health conditions," Councillor Hoban said. 


"The real issue has been that we've had close to 18 months and we still don't have enough vaccines. 


“If there was an outbreak in the Nambucca Valley and they rushed Pfizer here, immunity is not immediate.” 


Similar concerns were held by the Mayor of Lake Macquarie Kay Fraser, who said regional NSW was being treated like Sydney's "poorer cousin". 


“I have a real issue with it," she said. 


“If it’s going to come out of the Hunter region or some of those regional areas out at Orange, where there is COVID-19, I’m really concerned.”  [ABC News, 29 July 2021]


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Twenty-four 24 brand new homes funded by a $4.1 million grant by the NSW Government - 12 two-bedroom and 12 single-bedroom - are to be built in South Grafton for disadvantaged families in partnership with North Coast Community Housing.


Work is expected to begin on the Bimble Ave site in South Grafton early in 2021, following council approval.


North Coast Community Housing CEO John McKenna said the project would help alleviate housing stress by providing a significant boost to housing options in Grafton.


The mixed tenure development is aimed at addressing three issues in the current housing market by offering six of the units for sale, nine units at an affordable rent for key workers and nine units for those most in need of social housing,” Mr McKenna said.” [DailyTelegraph, 28 July 2021]


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Details of the fines issued to 26 year-old George Thompson who breached the Greater Sydney lockdown by flying to Ballina on 14 July 2021 before being driven across the NSW-Qld border where allegedly he used someone else's details to check into venues around Brisbane…..

July 26: Mr Thompson was fined $4,000 for failing to comply with a border direction, $4,000 for providing false information and $1,300 for failing to comply with a direction from an emergency officer. Ms Gray was fined $4,000 failing to comply with a border direction.” [Daily Mail, 29 July 2021]


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Tuesday 13 July 2021

Australian Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison's inept handling of the COVID-19 vaccine supply contracts revealed, as business turns to former Labor prime minister Rudd for assistance

 

Letter dated 30 June 2021 concerning Pfizer vaccine supply - from former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ru... by clarencegirl on Scribd


The New Daily, 12 July 2021:


The ABC, which obtained a copy of the letter, reports that Mr Rudd stepped in after a senior Australian business figure living in the USA held two meetings with Pfizer because he was despairing of the Coalition government’s vaccine supplies.


The ABC reports that senior Pfizer executives had been astonished that Mr Morrison had not directly spoken to the Pfizer chairman and suggested that Mr Rudd — who was known to them because of his work in the United States — may have some influence.


If it was possible for Pfizer to accelerate the doses, Mr Bourla indicated they would need a contractual request from the Australian government, Mr Rudd’s letter states…..


Nine days after Mr Rudd’s Zoom meeting [with Mr. Bourla], Mr Morrison announced on Friday [9 July 2021] that Australia’s Pfizer doses would be brought forward, with 1 million jabs per week starting in July......


Immediately after the media reports began to circulate on 12 July 2021 Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care & Liberal MP for Flinders Greg Hunt began issuing denials that Mr. Rudd had any involvement in the contractual delivery schedule of Pfizer COMIRNATY BNT162b2 (mRNA) doses to Australia being accelerated.


However the letter of 30 June clearly indicates that Rudd had earlier proactively contacted Pfizer and that Pfizer would be amenable to being contacted further in relation to the supply schedule by the Morrison Government, its contractual partner.


The letter also indicates that prior to the 30 June letter being sent Rudd personally contacted Prime Minister Morrison informing him of the initial contact with Pfizer.


In my opinion the contents of Rudd's letter are more credible than deflective statements made by Minister Hunt.



Monday 31 May 2021

COVID-19 Pandemic 2020-21: Morrison Government still not listening to the experts

 

The New Daily, 30 May 2021:


The numbers used by the federal government to defend the effectiveness of hotel quarantine are wrong, one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists has said.


The criticism comes amid growing calls for every state and territory to have a purpose-built facility, as new analysis shows purpose-built quarantine costs a fraction of the economic cost of lockdowns.


Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to downplay concerns Australia would keep yoyo-ing in and out of lockdown until issues in hotel quarantine were fixed.


A system that is achieving 99.99 per cent effectiveness is a very strong system and is serving Australia very well,” Mr Morrison said.


If I was to tell you [last year] that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn’t have believed me. No one in this country would have believed me. I would have found that hard to believe.”


But Mary-Louise McLaws, an infectious diseases expert at the University of New South Wales and member of the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 response team, said the PM’s figure was wrong.


I have no idea where it’s been plucked out of,” Professor McLaws told The New Daily.


Around 70 per cent of total cases since Australia closed its borders on March 20 last year have directly and indirectly come from quarantine breaches and exemptions, she said.


Approximately 21,000 people have been infected due to those breaches and exemption.


Professor McLaws said the Australian government needed to “turn 180 degrees and rethink” the quarantine system, to save itself money and protect its citizens.


Lockdown costs $1billion a week for NSW or Victoria,” she said.


Pointing to the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility, which has not leaked a single case into the community, she said states need their own purpose-built facilities, not hotels.


Victoria has estimated they could make a purpose-built for $700 million. That’s less than the cost of a one-week lockdown,” Professor McLaws said.


In WA, they could make a 1000-bed facility that would cost between $80 million and $200 million – that’s still a fraction.


So when people say this is too expensive, I say try $1 billion a week.”…..


News.com.au, 29 May 2021:


A Melbourne doctor has delivered a spray at the PM on national television as frustration boils over about the Government’s biggest headache.


Frontline emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning after Victoria was thrust into its fourth lockdown since the pandemic began.


He told the ABC that Victorians are “getting tired of hearing excuses” about things that “should have happened earlier this year, at least”.


He was referring to delays in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the Commonwealth’s slow take-up of advice to build a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility that does not involve placing infected people in hotel rooms.


It’s taking too long,” Dr Parnis said. “It should have happened earlier this year, at least. We need to do it right now. [New quarantine facilities] has the same urgency as vaccinating our nursing home populations.


We know that this virus has airborne transmission. We know that the best protocols will still not be foolproof in hotels that are designed for tourists. Each state and territory will have plans for these things. But they are waiting for the checks to come from Canberra and those checks have been delayed,” Dr Parnis said.


That is unacceptable, I think, to the medical profession, and it should be unacceptable to the wider population.”


It is a sentiment shared by Melbourne GP Dr Vyom Sharma. He told news.com.au there is nowhere near enough being done to stop leaks from HQ.


There are no nationally consistent guidelines for infection prevention and control,” he said.

Different states have different standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — some will use simple surgical masks when near travellers, others will use N95 respirators.


Some states have performed ventilation audits and upgrades. Others either have not, or have not reported this publicly. This inconsistency risks further instances of airborne transmission within quarantine.”


He said staff working in medi-hotels are not being protected.


Any staff within line of sight of a returned traveller should be wearing an N95 mask. That is a no brainer, and an instant fix — source the materials, fit test all staff.


Also, and I can only hope this is the case in all states, make vaccination mandatory for all staff, and do not allow them on site until two weeks after the second dose.”


Dr Sharma said the problem was no going to disappear and that only fit-for-purpose accommodation would prevent more outbreaks.


More leaks are inevitable if things stay the same. Only a fool would bet otherwise.”


The problem with using hotel quarantine to house overseas arrivals from Covid-19 hotspots was raised with the Prime Minister on Thursday after Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino revealed the holdup in building an broadacre facility was at a federal level.


We are waiting on the green light in terms of going ahead,” he said in relation to a proposal to build such a facility at Avalon or Mickleham partly funded by both state and federal governments.


Mr Morrison said he was “highly favourable” of the Victorian plan but did not make a firm commitment.


Melbourne surgeon Dr Eric Levi expressed his frustration at Victoria being forced into another lockdown because quarantine issues had not been sorted.


Let’s learn from this. AGAIN,” he wrote on Twitter.


One person was Covid negative on multiple swabs, spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. Caught Covid from the room next door. Flew back to Melbourne. Tested positive.


Now thousands of primary and secondary contacts. One person in ICU.


More than 150 exposure locations. And a state in lockdown. Again. It’s 16 months into the pandemic. Should we not have learned this last year. Can we fix upstream quarantine problems before it causes downstream catastrophe?


Covid is airborne. Majority of those with Covid have no symptoms. By the time they know they’re positive, they’ve shared the virus with others. We now have vaccines to reduce transmission. New variants are emerging.”


Mr Merlino said expressions of interest had been sent out on Friday for the building of a facility at either Avalon or Mickleham, 30km and 56km from the CBD respectively.


But nothing will happen without the Morrison Government’s approval. It will have the final say.


Both sites could work and that will ultimately, because these are both Commonwealth pieces of land, be the decision of the Commonwealth,” Mr Merlino said.



Sunday 28 March 2021

My Health Record not always helping people prove they have a medical condition that prioritises them for a COVID-19 vaccine


The Australian Digital Health Agency which became fully operational on 1 July 2016 is the System Operator of the My Health Record system.


It appears that its record keeping may not be living up to expectations created at the time by then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Health Sussan Ley.


Before booking an appointment it may be wise to check if you have sufficient proof of eligibility if you are not being vaccinated against the  COVID-19 virus at your usual GP practice.


The Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2021:


It has cost taxpayers $2 billion but the My Health Record is proving useless when it comes to helping people prove they have a medical condition that prioritises them for a COVID-19 vaccine.


Two million Australians who have an underlying medical condition are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine under phase 1b, which began this week, but many will be unable to get it at their regular GP. Only 1000 GPs are approved to provide the vaccine and one in three GPs decided not to apply at all.


This means many patients will need to provide some kind of proof to an unfamiliar medical practice that they have a condition that qualifies them for a priority vaccination.


The Department of Health’s website warns: “If you are not eligible or cannot demonstrate your eligibility when you arrive for your vaccination, you may be asked to leave.” It states that a clinic’s records may be relied on as evidence at their usual doctor. At an unfamiliar practice “accepted evidence” includes My Health Record or government-issued documents with date of birth.


Bronia Nowaine has a cardiac problem and, as advised by the Department of Health, had planned to use her My Health Record as proof of the condition so she could get a COVID-19 vaccine.


But when she opened her My Health Record online to see if it would be of use, she was shocked to discover it was virtually empty.


Earlier this year we revealed doctors and hospitals are not using the record. GPs look at the record in fewer than 1 per cent of consults and hospitals use it in just 2 per cent of cases. Ms Nowaine said she was annoyed at having to find another way of proving her eligibility. “If I was to fall down in the street and an ambulance needed my information they should be able to get it but it seems they wouldn’t,” she said.