And Australians aged over 50 would be putting themselves at risk if they don’t get the jab Prime Minister Scott Morrison said as he tried to rebuild confidence in the immunisation rollout.“I want my mum to get it,” he said.Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout had to be recalibrated after an expert government panel ruled on Thursday night that the Pfizer vaccine should be the preferred option for those aged under 50 because of the very rare risk the AstraZeneca shot vaccine might cause blood clots.We are now unlikely to meet the target of giving all Australians a single shot of COVID-19 by October.Currently the Pfizer supplies are arriving at the rate of just 130,000 doses a week and are not due to substantially increase until July when they will more than double.The 20 million extra doses purchased yesterday will not arrive until the final three months of this year.Australians aged under 50 who don’t want to wait for a Pfizer vaccine can still ask for the AstraZeneca vaccine if they discuss the risk with their doctor, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) said.“The AstraZeneca vaccine can be used in those under 50 where the benefits clearly outweigh the risk for that individual and the person has made an informed decision,” RACGP President Karen Price said.Those aged over 50 will be given the AstraZeneca vaccine because their risk from COVID is far greater than the risk from the vaccine.One upside of placing greater reliance on the Pfizer shot is it could speed up the date at which everyone receives two doses of vaccine.There is only a three week wait between doses of the Pfizer vaccine compared to a three month gap between AstraZeneca shots.Currently the Pfizer vaccine is being distributed through hospitals because it has to be kept at super-cold temperatures and this could hamper the current rollout which is using GPs and pharmacists.However, new rules say it can be stored for a short time at ordinary refrigeration temperate and this could mean GPs are able to deliver the shot, but that is still being discussed.The troubled vaccine program which was already way behind schedule dissolved into confusion yesterday as state governments stopped providing the AstraZeneca jab to nurses and other medicos.Later in the day they said it was a temporary halt while they updated consent forms to include advice about the risk of blood clots.Queensland University of Technology’s Professor Ross Gordon said the AstraZeneca blood clot risk had put “a major dent in the vaccination strategy”.“People appreciate timely, clear, transparent, easily understood and honest information on which to base their health decisions. Unfortunately, this has been lacking so far in the Australian vaccination strategy,” he said.Australia’s vaccine rollout is way behind target and we trail the world ranking 50th in terms of the number of doses delivered.Nepal, the Dominican Republic and Colombia have delivered more doses than us.Just 5.5 per cent of our population has received a shot compared to over 33 per cent of people in the US and over 47 per cent in the UK.The government had promised four million people would be vaccinated by April 1 but only just cracked delivering one million doses on April 8.How 10 million Aussies can get a COVID jab right nowCOVID vaccine’s strict 4-step test and when it starts to work
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