ATAGI has changed its stance on vaccination for >18 year olds
Key points
- Get whichever vaccine you can
- Astra Zeneca and Pfizer reduce severity of disease symptoms, reduce hospitalisations,
- Reduce likelihood of death
- They might also reduce transmission to some extent
- Delta strain is more contagious, is in our community and is now a major risk. It affects young people severely.
Putting clotting statistics in perspective:
Risks of Astra Zeneca vaccine
There are also rare but severe side effects: anaphylaxis (two to five per million people), and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (TTS).
The only risk factor that has been shown to predict how likely you are to get TTS after an AstraZeneca vaccine is age.
Your risk of getting a blood clot from TTS is still far less than your risk of dying in a car accident in the next year, and most people still don’t think twice about getting into a car.
Masks remain a key form of disease spread control
USA CDC recommends masks
On Tuesday, July 27, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued updated guidance recommending fully vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and help protect.
Vaccines work
The UK reveals 12.5% of all Delta variant infections, were in those who were fully vaccinated also known as ‘breakthrough infections’.
Of these, 3.8%, required a visit to ED. Just 2.9% required hospital admission, and less than 1% died.
Full Article
Here’s the article: https://theconversation.com/
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
