New South Wales will receive an extra 50,000 Pfizer vaccine doses to help it cope with its COVID-19 crisis. State and territory leaders were surprised to learn such a surplus existed, and Western Australian’s Premier Mark McGowan demanded the doses be allocated.
The federal government has denied an emergency stockpile exists, arguing the doses are part of NSW’s future allocations brought forward due to more doses than expected being delivered by Pfizer.
Data provided to Crikey from the Health Department has shown a total of 19.2 million doses — 6.9 million doses of Pfizer and 12.3 million doses of AstraZeneca — have arrived onshore.
Between April 26 and July 26, 17.4 million doses were tested and released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). 15.5 million doses were delivered to vaccination hubs, including 863,000 sent to DFAT to be donated abroad, and 11.5 million doses have been administered to Australians.
That leaves 1.8 million doses awaiting testing by the TGA, 1.9 million doses that have been tested but not delivered, and 3.1 million doses that have been delivered but not administered (minus those donated), leaving a stockpile of 6.8 million vaccines — at least 2 million of which are Pfizer.
The government has been incredibly reluctant to provide clear, concise data on vaccines. It only recently started providing information on first and second doses administered by age and sex, and still doesn’t break down the number of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The data is presented in colourful PowerPoint slides, making analysis arduous and labour intensive.
But for you, Crikey readers, I have nothing but time.
What does the data say?
The Health Department’s vaccine operations centre began providing weekly updates on April 26. Pfizer doses are shipped from abroad and AstraZeneca is manufactured onshore (with additional doses from Europe).
These doses undergo testing by the TGA before being allocated by the federal government to residential disability and aged care homes and primary carers, which the Commonwealth oversees, and to states and territories to administer.
When the operations centre began providing updates, 3.5 million doses had been delivered and 1.9 million administered. That week the TGA tested 173,000 doses of Pfizer and 707,000 of AstraZeneca, totalling 4.4 million doses either administered or ready for arms. Over time that number has steadily increased, with the TGA planning on testing over 1 million doses of Pfizer and 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca this week.
As of July 26, a total of 17.4 million doses had been released by the TGA, including 1 million Pfizer doses this week (though the latest update didn’t state how many AstraZeneca doses had been released, meaning the number of available vaccines may be higher than this data shows). This includes 3.5 million unspecified doses already delivered prior to the first Vaccine Operation Centre report on April 26.
Yet just 15.4 million doses have been delivered, and 11.5 million doses administered including 6.3 million doses administered by the Commonwealth to those in primary care and aged and disability facilities. Primary care workers can choose the AstraZeneca vaccine; many say they missed out on being vaccinated by the Commonwealth and instead lined up at state vaccination clinics.
On May 3, 38,000 first doses were donated to the Department of Foreign Affairs to distribute to the Pacific. A total of 863,000 AstraZeneca doses have since been donated, with another 2.5 million earmarked for Indonesia in response to the escalating crisis in that country.
What stockpile?
Plans to phase out the AstraZeneca vaccine were released late last month; from December the Commonwealth will allocate doses to states based on demand. NSW has been criticised for its slow take-up of allocated AstraZeneca doses. It has used just 145,000 of the almost 1 million allocated to it by the Commonwealth. Leftover doses will go to other states or abroad.
This lack of demand isn’t represented in the federal Health Department’s figures, which only show delivered doses used, not those available or allocated. According to its latest update, NSW, Queensland and the ACT have fully used their delivered doses, and other jurisdictions’ rates are between 89% and 96%.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said yesterday extra doses didn’t come from a stockpile but were “previously unallocated doses”.
“What we have done is make sure we’re not holding large amounts of doses,” he said, adding that there were some doses being held to ensure secondary shots could be administered at the right time.
A Health Department spokesperson told Crikey vaccines are distributed to eligible administration sites, who are responsible for managing their stock on hand and administering first and second doses according to the recommended dose intervals.
Thanks, Amber. At least someone is trying to break through the ‘smoke n mirrors’ that is federal government. SmoCo Morrison living up to his nickname yet again.
Two questions: Why is Federal Govt holding back vaccine? Does Morrison intend to flood market so to speak just before announcing date of Federal Election?
Keep in mind young Australians are desperate for jab and will accept either AZ or Pfizer. Any brand that minimises risk of infection.
” This lack of demand isn’t represented in the Federal Health Dept’s figures . . .”
One further question: Amber’s post further reveals the one sustainable truth about Australian governance . . . It is either entirely incompetent or, so committed to political imperatives, that it is prepared to risk Australian lives?
human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused.
A collapse could arise from shocks, such as a severe financial crisis, the impacts of the climate crisis, destruction of nature, an even worse pandemic than Covid-19 or a combination of these, the scientists said.
To assess which nations would be most resilient to such a collapse, countries were ranked according to their ability to grow food for their population, protect their borders from unwanted mass migration, and maintain an electrical grid and some manufacturing ability. Islands in temperate regions and mostly with low population densities came out on top.
I think that I read that some of the Pfizer had been spoiled by mishandling the -70-degree storage requirement. Not enough to show up in these figures?
Also: by eyeball, the last graph “Total” doesn’t appear to be the sum of the AZ and Pfizer curves, especially at the April-26 end. What makes up the initial 4M figure there, if not AZ and Pfizer?
Spot on Andrew! How can the Total of released vaccine be several fold larger than the sum of the two vaccines that comprise it? This anomaly in government figures from such a simple graph makes me wonder if the claim that ” 6.3 million doses have been administered by the Commonwealth to those in primary care and aged and disability facilities”, can possibly be true?? 6.3 million doses makes up a significant proportion of the total vaccines administered – and we continue to hear from some Aged Care home operators that their residents still remain to be vaccinated.
Must have missed the news on Britain’s vaccine rollout. Assumed govt. was using Astra vaccine. Not so, even the British govt. had supplies of mixed vaccines. Have not searched yet for what vaccine given to particular age group, but it irks me greatly that MSM here implies Astra was the main vaccine used.
As for secret supplies here – who knows? Certainly not the medical fraternity. Only the coalition appear to know. How usual (rather than how unusual).