Health Minister Greg Hunt and Professor Paul Kelly have asked the vaccine watchdog to assess whether there was any need for a change to the booster program amid the Omicron variant hitting Australia. It comes as the United Kingdom announced it would halve the waiting time between second and booster shots to three months for eligible adults. As it stands, Australians must wait six months after their second dose of vaccine to get their booster shot.Professor Kelly said there was a need to be “cognisant” of international decisions and evidence, but keep in mind that booster shots make “a lot of sense’ in winter. “We’re more than six months away from winter. We know that respiratory viruses circulate a lot more in winter,” he said. “It’s likely that that’s when we would want the boosters to be actively working. “There are some significant reasons behind the delay of a booster to more than three months, but it’s a balance, and that’s exactly the sort of issues that I discussed this morning with ATAGI and they’ll look at that now.”Health authorities gave government officials advice on Monday to pause the reopening of the country to international students and skilled migrants by two weeks, to allow for more time to understand the risks of the Omicron variant.Health Minister Greg Hunt said the slight delay in Australia’s reopening plan would enable health authorities the time to assess whether changes were needed to the booster program, as well as to learn more about the Omicron variant.Five cases have so far been detected in travellers, all of whom are in quarantine. Mr Hunt said Australia was “as well prepared as any nation in the world” to deal with emerging variants, with 87 per cent of adults aged over 16 now fully vaccinated. “We’re doing this (pause) out of an abundance of caution, but our overwhelming view is that whilst it’s an emerging variant, it’s a manageable variant,” Mr Hunt said. “We know that other countries are facing hte same challenges, and we know that the US President (is also) going to have a two week period, which is exactly the advice that Professor Kelly and… Professor Murphy gave the National Security Committee yesterday. “Everybody is working together. Australia’s dealt with challenges, and we’re ready for this. We’re able to deal with this and we want to give Australia that confidence.”Infectious Disease specialist Dr Nick Coatsworth said earlier on Tuesday any decision that ATAGI makes will be “in our best interest”. “They will be safe whenever they get their booster,” he told Sunrise. “My gut feeling is that this is not a bad one compared to what we have seen before. “It’s more transmissible, but probably mild. Let’s wait for more information. We are all doing the right thing.”CSIRO director Dr Rob Grenfell said it was a timely reminder that the pandemic was “far from over”. “With regards to whether it’s more infectious, it clearly is because it’s displacing Delta in South Africa,” Dr Grenfell told the Today show. “But is it more serious? We don’t know yet. The South African population is definitely different than our population. “So we’ll have to see what happens in Europe to see (if) it is more severe.”He said it was not premature to be discussing bringing booster shots forward in Australia.Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the Omicron variant was an unknown “to all of us”. “Based on the health advice, more time was needed to make sure that we had all the relevant information to that variant,” she told ABC Breakfast. “The good thing is here in Australia we have such a high vaccination rate … So that does put us in very good stead to face Omicron and any other variant.Dr Coatsworth said in addition to rolling out the booster shot program in Australia, the country had a role to play in vaccinating other countries. “The safest you can be is not for Australians to get their first dose, but someone in Africa or indeed, Papua New Guinea to get their first dose,” he said. “That is what needs to be discussed at the national cabinet and that is what will stop Omicron and other variants from emerging in the future rather than dwelling on what we’re doing mystically.”
Powered by WPeMatico
