The expert advisory group on immunisation is now urging younger people to talk to their doctor about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine if they live in an outbreak zone. It’s also updated its advice on early second doses of the vaccine.
Dr Norman Swan takes a look.
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[Music] two weeks ago the prime minister faced a backlash after his comments which seemed to contradict the expert medical advice that pfizer was the preferred vaccine for people aged under 60. the otagi advice talks about a preference for astrazeneca to be made available to those as preferred for those over 60 but the advice does not preclude persons under 60 from getting the astrazeneca vaccine we’ve been on a vaccination roller coaster for months now yesterday the expert medical advice from otagi changed largely because of the latest outbreak of the delta variant that shifted the whole risk calculation for the rare side effects linked to the astrazeneca vaccine the technical advisory group on immunization known as otagi now says that in an outbreak zone people younger than 60 should reassess the rare risk of clots from astra versus the benefits of covered protection associate professor chris blythe is co-chair of otagi importantly many people are particularly those 40 to 59 eligible for the fires of vaccine and importantly that is our preferred vaccine under the age of 60. but in the setting of outbreaks there is likely to be benefit of astrogenic vaccines particularly those at greatest risk and that’s the balance that people need to consider but that didn’t stop the prime minister venting his frustration on commercial radio today otagi has been very cautious and they had a massive impact on the rollout of the vaccine program um it really did it it slowed it considerably and it put us behind and we wish that wasn’t the result that it was we interviewed chris blythe this morning before these comments were made by the prime minister but we did ask him if otagi felt under any pressure from the government decisions are made independent of government and importantly we provide all of those recommendations to government how that informs the then the rollout strategy clearly has a number of layers on top of the health advice but we provide health advice we are recommending that whilst the interval was that three months at this time because we are seeing case numbers high we want to get people to come forward and you can get vaccinated around that six weeks mark the other new advice from otagi was that in a delta outbreak people who’ve had their first astral dose should get their second dose sooner within four to eight weeks rather than three months otagi has always said although the preferred interval is 12 weeks in the settings where the risk is greater and the risk of exposure is greater the interval should be shortened you could be forgiven for being confused because for months now we’ve been told that a 12-week gap between astrozenica doses gets you maximum immunity the obvious question then is whether an earlier dose lowers your protection professor terry nolan is a former chair of otagi and a vaccine expert we’re dealing with very imperfect or imprecise data that doesn’t give us a clear black and white answer what professor nolan is referring to is that the data suggesting a better immune response with a 12-week gap were based on small numbers in a clinical trial of the astro vaccine last year what was not at all clear in the findings was the difference if you had your second dose at six or eight weeks in fact the evidence such as it is is reassuring it’s not materially very large but more importantly it’s quite imprecise and it also says nothing about any difference in efficacy against severe disease which we don’t know about the point we need to focus on is whether with the delta strain a shorter gap still gives good protection against serious illness chris blythe believes it does what we’re recommending is actually that short term protection you get from your second dose in an outbreak situation is more important than any potential long term effectiveness you get from a delayed interval we are not the only nation in a race to get immunized with limited vaccine supplies professor terry nolan proposes a solution to this we do the same as they did in england and also in canada we have sparse supply we make a decision to get more people immunized now imperfectly with only one dose and get them their second dose just a bit later terry nolan is suggesting lengthening the time between doses of the pfizer vaccine from three to six weeks this would release stock held back for second doses and get first shots into the maximum number of people as quickly as possible i am recommending this idea be considered by a target by government as a way of just getting us through this initial pipeline this bridge over the next two months or so until we’ve got much more plentiful supply of both pfizer and modena vaccines it’s understood that otagi has been discussing exactly this the recommendation has always been that a fisa dose can be given between 19 and 42 days so there is an interval there and that interval was provided to try and give flexibility to providers and to strategies as far as that as far as what the long-term impacts of that and the impacts on the roll-out strategy i’ll leave that to government the message in new south wales and from today’s news in victoria is that we need to think hard about this revised advice in new south wales if you’re infected with a covered 19 virus your chances of ending up in icu are 1 in 40. those are not good odds compared to the 1 in 50 000 risk of getting a blood clot after receiving the astrazeneca vaccine [Music] hi i’m lee sales thanks for watching this story if you’d like to watch more of 7 30 stories they are on the left of your screen and tap on the button below to subscribe and get the latest from abc news
