Backed many horses’: Australia’s health chief calms fears about vaccine
Australia’s chief medical officer has rejected calls to pause the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, insisting it is completely effective in preventing serious illness and death from coronavirus.
Some doctors are concerned about the vaccine’s efficacy rate, which ranges from 62 per cent to 90 per cent, depending on how doses are administered.
The doctors fear this may not be enough to achieve herd immunity and protect enough of the Australian community from the virus.
They are calling on the government to reshape its vaccine strategy and pivot to alternative candidates such as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs.
But Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly is standing by plans to distribute AstraZeneca to most Australians.
He has challenged the focus on efficacy rates published in a medical journal in December.
“In terms of preventing death, it works 100 per cent of the time. In terms of preventing severe illness, it works 100 per cent of the time,” Professor Kelly said on Wednesday.
He said AstraZeneca’s candidate exceeded the World Health Organisation’s minimum efficacy rate for vaccinations.
The federal government has ordered 54 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and plans to give it to most Australians, pending approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
