Vaccine question experts can’t answer

The Prime Minister on Thursday revealed the nation’s top medical experts were investigating overseas figures because there was still “no hard and fast rule”. “What we have been seeing is that many populations levelling out at about the 60 per cent mark, but medical opinion differs on those issues,” Mr Morrison said in Melbourne. “It isn’t just a population-wide measure, you’ve got to look, particularly when you’ve had a vaccination program, about your most vulnerable populations.”But the concept of herd immunity – the resistance to the spread of COVID-19 based on a high proportion of people already having immunity as a result of vaccination or infection – remains a contentious one.Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci this month said it was “elusive” after previously saying it could require 75-85 per cent of the population to be vaccinated.“I’ve always said, and continue to say, that the best thing to do is to vaccinate as many people as you possibly can as quickly as you possibly can,” Mr Fauci told Sky News. The Morrison government’s vaccine rollout came under fire this week after new figures showed fewer than 1000 people in disability care had been vaccinated. Speaking in Melbourne, Mr Morrison said the focus had been on vaccinating people in nursing homes and those aged over 70 because they were the most risk for serious illness and death from COVID-19.“I met with the Disabilities Minister yesterday and, what is clear, is that there are many people with disabilities who have been vaccinated as part of other programs,” Mr Morrison said despite conceding on Tuesday that more needed to be done. “But (they) haven’t been counted in the millions already vaccinated with the (disability care) in-reach programs. “We are working with the disability sector and providers to ensure we are matching those records to get a clearer picture of how much progress we’ve had in the sector.” More than 3.2 million vaccine doses, including 307,409 doses in aged and disability facilities, had been administered as of Tuesday.