A group of Australian scientists asked the government to review its immunization strategy with Covid-19 due to concerns that the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine was not effective enough to generate collective immunity.
Several immunologists and the opposition Labor Party said on Wednesday that Canberra should seek additional supplies of the BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which the tests show are more effective – a measure for preventing infection or serious illness – than the Oxford vaccine. / AstraZeneca.
Some health experts are also advocating a “pause” in the launch of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine next month. The proposal was rejected by Canberra.
“Until we get more data to show that AstraZeneca is as good as the others, the scientific and medical risk you face is not getting collective immunity,” said Andrew Miller, president of the Australian Medical Association in Western Australia. “The political risk is that you get a good vaccine for the rich and a vaccine not so good for the poor”
Dr. Miller said Canberra should halt the planned launch of the Oxford / AstraZeneca jab and provide vaccines with the greatest effectiveness. Since Australia has largely controlled the virus – unlike the United Kingdom or the United States – it should wait and provide the best vaccines available to build public trust, he added.
However, the government said the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine would provide vital protection against the virus and that there were no plans for a policy turnaround.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine is effective, it is safe and it is a high quality vaccine,” said Paul Kelly, Australia’s medical director. “It will be available as soon as the TGA [medicine regulator] it ticks, which we expect in February.
Australia’s vaccination strategy suffered a blow last month when a local candidate developed by the University of Queensland and CSL was abandoned after several trial participants returned false positives for HIV. However, Canberra had a contingency plan and agreed to A $ 3.3 billion ($ 2.6 billion) of agreements with pharmaceutical companies for alternative vaccines.
Your biggest order is with AstraZeneca. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker agreed to provide 53 million doses of its vaccine, which achieved an average 70 percent test effectiveness. It also ordered 10 million doses of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, which achieved more than 90 percent effectiveness and is also expected to be approved by the TGA next month.
Canberra has also agreed to purchase 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, although they are not expected to be available until mid-2021.
Some scientists are concerned about Australia’s dependence on Oxford / AstraZeneca, noting that test data showed that when the jab was given in two full doses at least a month apart, its effectiveness was only 62 percent.
“The adoption of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines seems like a good idea in an ideal situation,” said Stephen Turner, president of the Immunology Society of Australia and New Zealand.
He considered a review of the Canberra vaccine strategy appropriate, but warned that there were practical difficulties in launching the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine because it needs to be stored at less than 70ºC. The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be maintained between 2C and 8C, could be a useful tool in the short term to control the virus, said Turner.
The Australasian Virology Society said it does not support a “pause” in the vaccine’s launch. Instead, all data must be analyzed for safety and effectiveness by the Australian drug regulator before a final decision to launch the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, he said.
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The Labor Party said the government should make more deals with vaccine manufacturers, noting that there were three contracts, while other developed economies had five or six. But he did not ask for a pause in the launch of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine.
Peter Collingon, professor of microbiology at Australian National University, described calls to stop the launch as “unrealistic”. He said the government is unlikely to be able to provide enough alternative vaccines this year and that it is crucial to vaccinate high-risk people before winter.