More than 90% of NSW residents aged over 16 have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 70% of ACT residents aged over 12 have received a double dose.
It’s huge news for Australia — we may become one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world as other countries’ vaccination rates taper off. But there are some caveats, and while it’s cause for celebration, Australia has to celebrate carefully.
Different milestones
Unlike many other countries (or even the ACT), Australia’s goals are centred around those aged over 16 who have been vaccinated. Other nations take into account the whole of the population, including children or those aged over 12 deemed eligible for the vaccine.
Taking into account the whole population, our 80% vaccination target drops to 64% — a goal experts have warned is too low to achieve herd immunity.
But our different goalposts aren’t a problem, as University of Queensland infectious disease specialist Professor Paul Griffin tells Crikey.
“We just have to be aware we’re not measuring the same as other countries, and that we also look at the rate of uptake among those eligible,” he said.
NSW’s 90% single-dose is nothing to sniff at. In the US, a steep drop-off in vaccines started in mid-April, with mandates and passports introduced under President Joe Biden to spur the uptake. The UK had a slight dip in uptake but has hit 78% double dose in over-12s.
Griffin stressed we’re not out of the woods yet. “This is the end of the beginning, and we need to keep the motivation going to have first-round vaccination rates as high as possible before focusing on boosters,” he said.
From today, Australians aged 12 and older who are considered “severely immunocompromised” will be able to access a booster shot of an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer or Moderna.
What makes us so pro-vaccine?
Australia has one of the highest general vaccine uptake rates in the world. Immunisation coverage for five-year-olds sits at or above the 95% target, partly fuelled by the “no jab no play” childcare rebate initiative.
“We’re a health-literate nation and we’re a well-resourced country, so in terms of tackling complex logistics around delivering the vaccine we were in a good position,” Griffin said.
Lockdowns and vaccine certificates have also fuelled uptake, says Walter and Eliza Hall Institute epidemiologist Professor Ivo Mueller.
“We’re very sick and tired of lockdowns and the virus, so that’s turbocharged the uptake,” he told Crikey.
Unlike in the US, the issue of vaccination is not one of political sides, with the majority of Australia’s scientists, religious leaders and politicians supporting the vaccine, he says.
“In the US, the vaccine has become political and part of the political creed. If you’re part of right-wing persuasion it’s a badge of honour to not be vaxxed.”
Disparity across regions
While inner-city areas in states which have experienced long lockdowns have high vaccine uptake rates, there are huge gaps across the country.
Regional Queensland has some of the lowest vaccination rates in Australia, with just a third of residents fully vaccinated. Despite initially being a priority for vaccines, around a quarter of people with disabilities living in shared accommodation remain unprotected. The disability royal commission found those in group homes had been deprioritised in the rollout as the focus shifted to residential aged care facilities.
Vaccination rates among the Indigenous population, especially those in regional and rural areas, also lag behind the rest of the population. This is a “real worry”, Mueller says.
“Indigenous people have a high rate of chronic disease and often live in overcrowded areas, which is a real challenge for COVID-19. It will take an Indigenous-led and Indigenous-run effort to boost these rates,” he said.
Indigenous leaders have said the confusion around AstraZeneca eligibility and safety has had a massive impact on the rollout.
“In all celebration, let’s not forget [this disparity] is an issue that needs urgent attention and all of our support,” Mueller said.
The NSW Citizens are the crash test dummies for the rest of Australia. We shall watch with interest as Premier Perrottet leads the charge.
Perrotet has turned his 7 million subjects into lab rats. I do wish them well. Premiers in WA, SA Tasmania and Queensland will no doubt wait until the results of this experiment to be well understood before opening the borders to potential medical Armageddon.
Absolutely spot on
Yes indeed, medical Armageddon versus socio economic Annihilation, tough choices.
There will be few medical staff available to transfer down into the nightmare if it gets rolling, as we fear.
I’m not sure how the NSW population are lab rats. Haven’t we all been discussing how dozens of countries have done this before us? We’re just following the rest of the world on this path; it’s not some radical experiment.
True, millions have been locked down multiple times over the last two years to enable us to get to this point of change. Some people are comfortably numb enough to allow others to continue to suffer.
How many deaths are acceptable to you for your “economic” security? We’ve already had hundreds due directly to the failures of the NSW government, supported by the Morrison government. How many more are acceptable to you? Do you care that vulnerable people in the regions will bear the brunt of this disaster? Just because Sydney diverted vaccines to itself.. from the regions… great work Sydney… doing what you always do.
My concerns are for the life quality of people, not the economic consequences, although they tie in at some point. Crikey is full of commenters, never locked down themselves, wishing further restrictions on others. Let me ask you, how many lockdowns are acceptable to you? How many people must have their lives curtailed so that a minority of people can be protected? How much pain must be inflicted so that you feel ok?
We’ll get close enough to 95% in NSW before Xmas, but it will be sporadic unfortunately. We would be higher still if the federal government had looked after the areas they said were the top priority along with aged care – the disabled and the indigenous communities. Has this federal government actually delivered on any of its press releases?
Good positive attitude Dog. However from around the country.
WA We are doing fine and economy great. Don’t want Easterners and we can go overseas to Christmas Island but very limited vacancies due to level of tourism.
SA Very cautious of Easterners and we are doing fine.
NSW Very peeved about letting it rip as we all were lined up in Tamworth with daughter for testing as a case identified in school. Bloody Sydneyites took all the vaccine and have had difficulty getting the jab. Not happy.
ACT Just dominated by NSW
Qld I’m happy to keep them out until our levels are higher. I’m double dosed but a few probs in the country.
Thats the family report. No relies in NT and didn’t speak to the ones in Vic – Did not want to heard about the evil state of NSW.
Sigh. We get used to it but as usual no mention of Tasmania. Same as WA for us down here, without the Christmas Island bit. But don’t need it – Tasmania has beauty everywhere you look.
The problem is that TAS, WA and SA economies are small and the nation needs NSW and VIC firing to run all the services required. WA is doing well economically but may soon be challenged as climate change impacts mining and anything else that involves ripping stuff from the earth, QLD may also be in the same boat. SA and TAS make some nice wines and cheese but that’s about it.
If VIC and NSW don’t share their tax take then the other states drift towards bankruptcy. It’s not so bad for WA right at the moment, but most likely this is temporary.
The short answer is only when forced to do so, such as the convoy of camper-vans to a Willcania to aid with isolating the Covid19 positive people from their overcrowded housing, as well as a flying vaccination team.
Otherwise they/we are on their own.
But, hey they said they were 1A and 1B catagory, wasn’t that all the consultancy firms had to do, except contract Aspen Medical to get around to it.
But still only around 72% of total population. Certainly heading in the right direction but still a way to go compared to some other countries, one of the highest being Portugal with around 86% of total population fully vaccinated
Agreed. When you have to use footnotes to explain that your vax rates need to have an automatic 20% discount applied, you have to wonder – who are Perrotet and Morrison trying to fool?
Well Peter of Perth Hills your question is far too simple. They are trying to fool the people of Australia and really in the case of Morrison having fooled them so easily in the 2019 election he must fancy fooling them again. As you and others say Morrison’s targets of 70% and 80% are a joke in terms of the reality of the situation but Morrison is in a race for his political survival. The desired rates must be reached as quickly as possible so that Morrison can lay claim to the title of the great liberator of the Australian people from the evil COVID19.
All the better if he can present this as a Christmas present to the Australian people who he expects will fawn all over him and in a show of massive gratitude return him and his fellow grubs to power in the next election. Of course should COVID19 cases and deaths spike due to this self-serving action that is simply collateral damage. After all we should all know what groups of people will have the best of medical care should such a spike occur. For the rest of the plebs you are on your own in the great lottery that is our current hospital carrying capacity.
Wasn’t MoMo demanding to be Santa last Christmas as well?
PS. A MoMo is a Tibetan steamed white amorphous bun. anyone see the resemblance.
Interesting – Momo was also a popular character in German fiction in the 80s who was a child clown who lived in the woods outside a village and constantly solved problems.
A modern, PC Till Eulenspiegel.
A momo is a steamed dumpling, not an amorphous bun. They’re really tasty.
Themselves?
Being the only ones dumb enough to swallow their performative B/S.
No-one else without ulterior motive$ gives their mewlings a moment’s credence.
Yes it’s definitely another conspiracy, involving rat cunning usage of complex percentages.
Yes but the real question is Browser is why are we not at the same mark as Portugal or Spain or Denmark.? Look at all that time we had as basically a COVID19 free country last year and part of this one.to prepare for this. All thanks to the incompetent loser of a PM we have whose only interest is in political power, constantly speaking lies and doing his best to avoid transparency and accountability, A true grub in every sense of the word with due apologies to grubs for such comparisons.
The wood grubs accept your apology, I view his ilk more of the magott variety of grub myself.
Scomo certainly stuffed up the vaccine supply. No question. But it should also be acknowledged that public demand was muted precisely because we had zero covid. The number of people here who (until this outbreak) thought it more important to clean out their back sheds rather than go get the jab amazes me…
Yes quite right Wade. But just consider this, were you just like me underwhelmed by the federal govt advertising blitz to get a jab right back in the early months of 2020? Well we know now why there was no such blitz, all show and no substance Morrison simply lacked the vac supplies had such an ad campaign worked. Imagine has truly useless Morrison would have looked, advertising for people to get what he didn’t have.
Simply put Mr Stupidity could not advertise a product for which through his incompetence he simply did not have. And this miserable excuse is our PM????
Yep, I thought the same myself. It wasn’t in his interest to make it a race when he had failed to build the race track…
I think you missed our canary in the Asia/ Pacific region, Singapore.
Opened at 70% doubled vaxxed. hospitals overwhelmed, re-opened at 80% double vaxxed, ditto, Now reopening slowly over the next 6 months with the population 90% doubled vaxxed and its nearest neighbour Malayasia also 90% double vaxxed.
“But our different goalposts aren’t a problem, as University of Queensland infectious disease specialist Professor Paul Griffin tells Crikey.
“We just have to be aware we’re not measuring the same as other countries”
How does this even make sense?
So just through sheer awareness power, we can turn 53% into 70% and 64% into 80, and make the virus take notice. Wow! Amazeballs!!
It gets even more absurd if we get to 79% of the pop fully vaccinated, because that would translate to – wait for it – 100% vaccinated in Scotty’s alternate reality-speak!
100% percent! How good is Australia I hear the PM asking, with a cheeky little grin. Let’s start comparing our 100% awesomeness with all the lesser percentages of other nations, none of whom are even close! And all we had to do was reach 100%…
…of 79%!
It worked for those emissions targets, so why not Covid?
Quite right Glenn. But have you noticed the number of people quite happy to go along with this joke of measurement. The one thing I have noticed is how COVID19 has become so much about ‘I’ that is, what is good for me. A sick form of self interest has taken control of any so called ‘We are all in this together’. So for the sake of these people’s self interest we will put at risk more lives of those close to us in what will become some twisted form of utilitarian calculation of who will live and who will die should our hospital systems fail.
We refuse to look at the Swedish example of close to 15,000 dead compered to their Nordic neighbors of Norway, Finland and Denmark who lost less than 15 hundred each for ‘extra freedoms’. Well that was certainly a good trade off so long as you were not one of the dead or someone who lost loved ones.
Don’t worry, it won’t affect the eastern suburbs or the lower north shore.
Brilliant exposition.
It isn’t a cheeky grin, it is a self satisfied smirk from Smirko the spin doctor, who can spin a surplus into a record breaking deficit, whilst still managing to kick the poor and the sick to the curb and lavish billions of our tax dollars on multinationals who paid their dividends and CEO bonus’ and exported profits.
Australia has morphed into a different shape during this pendamic. It is a sort of off-square rectangle reminiscent of NSW. No longer is any other state (with the exception perhaps of Victoria) of any interest when it comes to 80% fully vaccinated.
The Federal Government no longer responsible for the supply of vaccinites has blithely denuded some states of their issues so the new Nation of Australia is nicely vaccinated while the rest of us can go to B….ery.
What shape is a turd?
A mirror will show you.
You add nothing of value to any discussion, just snark & snot.
Unlike your words of great wisdom, eh?
Just wait until December rolls around and we have to repay all the vaccines we begged from Boris, Poland and Singapore.
Hey, don’t worry Smirko and family will be on holidays, Barnyard will probably be fighting fires and uncontactable and the outbreak should be stellar by January 26th.