In this article, originally published on Neos Kosmos, I contribute to the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination roll out discussion. The public should not be concerned about how quickly the vaccine has come about due to the collaborative effort of the international research community.
——————-
On Monday, Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout officially began with Prime Minister Scott Morrison receiving one of the first Pfizer BioNTech jabs the day prior.
According to the Australian Government’s fact sheets, the vaccine is “voluntary and free and available to all people living in Australia”.
The vaccine rollout is being administered in stages beginning with quarantine and border workers, aged care and disability care staff and residents and frontline health care worker subgroups.
There are still many questions that the general public have regarding the vaccine and whether or not they feel comfortable taking it.
Just this week two elderly patients in North Brisbane were administered five times above the recommended dosage prompting an investigation by the federal government.
The doctor has since been stood down from the rollout program, whilst Health Minister Greg Hunt had to make an correction in parliament earlier this week, saying the doctor had not in fact had the correct training despite saying that he had during question time.
Registered Nurse working in aged care Toula Mykoniatis had tested positive for the coronavirus after an outbreak occurred at her work facility, but is in no rush to get the vaccine until she sees the evidence herself.
“I’m absolutely scared because there is no long-term study on the effects of this, there’s no long-term study on COVID to begin with,” she said.
Ms Mykoniatis also has a difficult time trusting the public health information out there due a bungle that occurred during her own time dealing with the coronavirus.
“I had the people who were supposed to be advising me what to do with my family stuff things up, there wasn’t clear cut information why my husband had to isolate with the kids and extra 14 days,” she explained.
Despite quarantining for 14 days as per public health regulations, Ms Mykoniatis alleges they were told her husband and two young children would have to self-isolate for a further two weeks even though the whole family had not tested positive and had quarantined all together.
“They cleared me, so the one that had COVID-19 got cleared and the ones that never got it had to serve another two weeks ‘just in case’, although they were still with me,” Ms Mykoniatis said.
The Registered Nurse also alleges that a DHHS employee had said that her husband’s negative COVID test could have been a result of “something he ate” and has since been weary of the information she has been given.
Registered Nurse Stephanie Dimitriou deals largely with an elderly demographic too and will be getting vaccinated as soon as it becomes available to her.
“I trust them [the Government]. I just don’t think they would do anything to harm the public and they’ve got the information from all the scientists, health experts and epidemiologists,” she said.
Ms Dimitriou relies on work emails, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and peer reviewed articles for her health information.
As the general public does not often get access to facility specific information, the young nurse understands why many people are adamant to jump in line for the jab.
General practitioner and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Fellow Doctor Magdalena Simonis does not believe the public should be concerned about how quickly the vaccine has come about due to the collaborative effort of the international research community.
“The key players in the scientific world have shared information on their vaccine strategy and trials, which is a world-first for this type of collaboration. It’s like the international scientific community said: ‘You take this route, we’ll take this one and let’s see what we each arrive at. Then each one of us can take it to our national leaders to decide which vaccine to purchase and/or manufacture in bulk’,” she said.
Dr Simonis points out that by the time the rollout reaches the later stages of the roll out, Australia will have most likely switched over to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“The decision has already been made, as there is a limited supply of the Pfizer. It’s been limited to the high risk category…GP’s are not considered in that high risk group as we don’t have much in the way of community spread,” she said.
The RACGP Fellow notes that around 70 percent of the population would need to get the vaccine before effectiveness can be felt, but it took “close to 20 years” before the flu vaccination hit those numbers.
Above all, Dr Simonis urges those who are unsure and would like to quell their concerns, to go and have a chat with their family GP.
“See your GP, have the conversation, have your Q and A’s ready, your GP’s will have some resources to help you find the answers and if they don’t, they will make a commitment to look those answers up for you,” she said.
Originally published: neoskosmos.com/en/186387/vaccine-see-saw-frontline-workers-contemplating-the-covid-19-jab/
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.
