January 15, 2021
2 mins read

Australia warned against delaying vaccine rollout

The Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology recently called on the Canberra government to pause its planned rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccines, saying it may not be effective enough to generate herd immunity to the virus…reports Asian Lite

A scientist who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on Friday warned Australia against delaying its rollout.

The Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology recently called on the Canberra government to pause its planned rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccines, saying it may not be effective enough to generate herd immunity to the virus, reports Xinhua news agency.

In response, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group Andrew Pollard said that the focus should be on the vaccine’s ability to prevent serious illness or death from COVID-19 rather than its capacity to stop transmission of the virus.

“Having a supply of vaccines today and getting them into people’s arms is what will save lives. That to me has got to be the absolute focus,” he said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday.



“The one hard bit of data we have for all the vaccines is that people who are vaccinated do not end up in hospital from Covid-19 and we’ve seen that consistently from our trials.”

The Australian government has agreed to purchase 53.8 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine pending approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

Some experts cited trials of the vaccine that found it was 62 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19, compared to about 95 per cent for vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Pollard said that the impact of a vaccine could only be determined “when they’re in people’s arms”.

“We don’t have any possibility of herd immunity without having high levels of vaccine coverage and nowhere in the world has had that happen yet,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday dismissed calls to postpone the rollout, which is set to begin in mid-February.

Australia has so far reported 28,658 confirmed coronavirus cases, and the numbers of locally and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were zero and 10 respectively, according to the latest figures updated by the Department of Health.

Also read:‘Australian bushfires to become severe’

Previous Story

Earthquake in Indonesia’s Sulawesi kills 35

Next Story

Sami Slams Twitter User Who Called Lata Mangeshkar ‘Overrated’

Latest from -Top News

Jaishankar Hints at Tariff Deal with US

Jaishankar explained that the ongoing trade tensions largely stem from the inability of both sides to reach a common ground on several issues….reports Asian Lite News External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on

Rajnath Singh Heads to Australia for Key Defence Talks

The visit comes at a historic moment when India and Australia commemorate five years of establishment of India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership…reports Asian Lite News Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Australia from

California Takes Trump to Court

Trump claimed that the deployment of federalized troops was necessary because the city of Portland was under siege…reports Asian Lite News California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state will sue the Trump

Hamas Heads to Egypt for Gaza Talks

The negotiation will focus on the details of enacting the first phase of the plan…reports Asian Lite News A delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas arrived in Egypt on Sunday ahead of

Multi-alignment, upgraded

With US ties strained and China tense, New Delhi taps Europe’s harder edge for co-development, clean tech and strategic autonomy, writes Manoj Menon India is recalibrating its great-power hedging as frictions with
Go toTop