Tamworth vaccine rollout: government too reliant on AstraZeneca, GP believes

Dr Ian Kamerman from North West Health said "the whole vaccination program in Australia was dependent on AstraZeneca", so other avenues should be examined to fix the botched rollout.

The storage temperature for the Pfizer vaccine has been lowered, making for more flexible storage in areas like Tamworth, but Dr Kamerman said the NovoVax vaccine could be the answer to all the questions.

"I think transport will be less of an issue but I must admit I think the answer for Australia will be the Novovax that we need to be looking at," he said.

"It's an old-fashioned type of vaccination, there are no huge tricks to it ... [it's] exposing you to the spike protein and developing an immune response".

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But this vaccine still needs approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

Minister for Regional Health and Warialda-based MP Mark Coulton said the federal government was "hopeful of obviously more of the AstraZeneca supplies coming through so we can get that first part of the rollout done".

"Despite the fact that now AstraZeneca is now not being recommended for people under 50, there's still eight million Australians who are in that bracket that can get the AstraZeneca and so we are continuing on with that rollout," Mr Coulton said.

"The government at the moment is trying to acquire more of the Pfizer vaccine."

He said his understanding was the 20 million doses of the Pfizer jab had "been delivered as per contract".

"What we are trying to do now is we obviously need to secure more so we've been using the Pfizer now for our aged care residents and frontline health workers but as we do the under 50s we're going to need more so we are seeking more supplies of the Pfizer," he told the Leader.

Dr Kamerman said everything to do with the Pfizer vaccine has "got to be revised".

"Pfizer was always just going to be 1a and was never going to be for rural areas," he said.

Mr Coulton urged over 50s to continue booking in for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"Until we get the country vaccinated, we are at risk, so everyone needs to be alert and when the opportunity comes, if the vaccine is available, I would be encouraging people to step up and take it," he said.

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