Thereās a decent case building to support that, not just from our experience here but also from what has been seen in other countries (like the UK).
Itās a hard one - the people in the cohorts that can access the vaccine are holding out for the ābetterā one and itās the sort of behaviour we should be actively discouraging, but they are also the people who are considered a greater risk if they are unvaccinated. There is also a significant proportion of that cohort that havenāt got their second yet. Meanwhile, thereās a demonstratable benefit to getting younger people done
I just canāt see anything changing - thereās no political impetus to do so.
The flu has been in Australia for I donāt know how many years, over 100 I guess.
Yet COVID-19 seems to be circulating mainly in metropolitan cities (assuming because itās from overseas and thatās where the big airports are), you donāt see news about 40 cases in Townsville, 60 cases in Darwin or 30 cases in Broome.
You donāt even hear about cases in Bundaberg or Rockhampton itās all down in SE Qld. I think weāve had some last year though. Yes the population is sparse up here and spread out so that helps .
So whatās stopping the virus from getting to regional areas because although the borders are closed the road is still open between Brisbane and Central and North Qldā¦ I assume the lockdown in Qld they had recently forbids travelling to regional areas?
Iām on this site and it says
If you are currently in an impacted area you can leave your home for any purpose. However, you must continue to wear a face mask wherever you go to within Queensland.
So someone could have it and then travel to a regional city and spread it .
2 things stand out to me; only 28% of 70-74ās are fully vaccinated? thatās doesnāt sound good after being eligible for an accessible vaccine for so many months. 73% have had one dose, maybe a lot of them got the first dose before the AGAGI advice and have been scared off from getting their second since?
and how is NSW still one of the least vaccinated states? only WA is lower. Didnāt NSW get an advance of 300k pfizer doses? youād think having covid on your doorstep for an extended period would be a motivating factor.
Itās just the 3 month lag between doses. If you got it in April you would only be getting to your next dose now. Itās why the 40-49 age group for example has a higher percentage of second doses than 50-69 because the 40-49 cohort would be mostly Pfizer and can get fully vaccinated quicker.
I think itās great that around 75% of over 70s have at least got the first jab.
Size of the population is a big factor and a number of states with better percentages also have older-skewing populations (the ACT are approaching 50% vaccination rate for 1 dose, but their 50+ population is almost 50%)
So far the COVID + woman who travelled to Queensland hasnāt resulted in any local cases with 0 local cases recorded yesterday. Possibly being vaccinated as made her potentially less infectious. 2 cases in HQ.