Australia says no to AZ and J&J vaccines--vax rollout likely to be delayed by months

[Kokeshi123]

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/13/australia-wont-buy-johnson-johnsons-one-dose-covid-vaccine-due-to-astrazeneca-similarities

I know quite a lot of Ozzies who are completely stranded outside their country due to the fact that they cannot keep small children within a hotel room for two weeks and pay a fortune for the priviledge. As it is, it's looking like Oz will not be removing its quarantine requirements until well into 2022 at the earliest.

I mean, I do think that a basic strategy of "(1) Hold borders tight with Zero Covid until the vax>(2) Unroll vax> (3) Open borders" is a sound one, but it does depend on the second and third bits of the plan actually happening...

I seen an article the other day that experts are saying 2024 before travel is back to normal.
7news.com.au/travel/full-overseas-travel-years-away-deloitte-c-2570247?fbclid=IwAR0T8_r_gkACiQnUP2o56b2MjjvEFJ2EyKBr8m3iwnJ3aLIp9nwtG-M5-GE

Ive said all along that they will gradually open up their travel restrictions, but with how the vaccines are being rolled out it means it will all take longer.

On the plus side we can travel to NZ, but with all travel you have to weigh up the potential of borders being shut.

I have enjoyed being able to live day to day with very minor restrictions, but it’s all rather depressing to think it could be another 2 years before I can see my family

I find this really frustrating. That suck a small population, figuratively speaking, can't get its act together and get on with vaccinating. Still waiting all HCP's to be done, never mind opening up to the general public. Pfizer only, no consideration for the other two has meant the process is bloody slow. I just want to go home (UK) and see my family. UK has seemed much more on the ball with their vaccination schedule:

The government is SO incompetent it is unbelievable. It makes me VERY angry

Well we should have guessed ScoMo would fuck it up! I do feel very lucky to be here living a fairly normal life, but I was hoping to see my mum before 2024! I'd rather be here than in the UK or Ireland though, my friends and family all seem to be having a pretty miserable time, and I wouldn't want to swap places.

It’s an absolute disgrace. I know everyone on MN seems to think Aus has done the right thing, and I have seen many calls for the U.K. to do similar.

But I’m an expat, and what none of you are seeing is the sheer amount of pain and suffering this policy has caused. Only the very richest can get into Aus now (because airlines only have limited seats on inbound flights, so they go to the people who are in business or first).

There are families who have been left absolutely destitute and broken by these closed borders. You might not hear about them, but they include families who have been ripped apart by a sick child, who had to go back to Aus for treatment and the father can’t get back, families who have missed the final year of their parent’s/grandparent’s life and funeral, families who have lost jobs overseas and then can’t afford to get back to Aus and end up completely destitute. The list goes on.

This is a globalised world and you can’t shut down borders without massive human consequences. The media doesn’t seem to show that side of it and follows the narrative that Australia has done a brilliant job of handling the epidemic.

They haven’t, and they need to start vaccinating ASAP to get themselves out of this mess.

Is there any sense that they’ll allow fully vaccinated residents back in with reduced / no quarantine requirements?

Are they still planning on zero Covid post vaccine program?

@newstart1234

Are they still planning on zero Covid post vaccine program?

Who knows? It's like everyone here has just stuck their head in the sand now and pretended it's not happening. I understand the desire to take the vaccination roll out slowly in a way - COVID itself isn't a massive risk and many of us are living fairly normally so we don't want to rush and find "the cure" causes more issues.

But at the same time, enormous damage has been done and is continuing to be done eg stranded citizens, tourism based businesses etc. and given the state governments' zero tolerance for positive cases, we are not going to be opening up fully anytime soon even with the vaccine.

Sorry I meant it's not a massive risk because they've contained it not that it's not a dangerous illness.

The whole thing is a giant fuck up.

Great that we live day to day in relative normality. Absolutely disgraceful that one of the most well resourced countries on the planet could not plan a piss up in a brewery. Our vaccination programme is a complete shambles.

I have not seen my son for 9 months - he had to take a scholarship in the UK or lose it.
I have not seen my parents since 2019 - they are in their 70s.

I have not seen my brother and his fsmily since 2018! My baby niece and nephew have started school in this time.

2024 might as well be 100 years away.

Scott Morrison and his merry band of morons have so much to account for. It's desperate times but they just don't have any forethought. All reactive policy making.

They have ordered another 40 million Phizer so it’s really just waiting for it to arrive.
I think when they say 2024 fir travel they mean to all countries. If they are happy with the covid risk in a country then we will be able to travel there earlier eg New Zealand. So I think travel to the uk will be before 2024
Fingers crossed that the vaccine program speeds up once the extra phizer doses arrive

I’m not confident that the Uk will be one of the earlier countries that we can travel unrestricted to.

I’m hoping that 2024 is a worse case scenario, but with the vaccine roll out being so slow and filled with mistakes it does seem a likely number.

I seen that they order more Pfizer vaccines but haven’t seen a date for arrival of them other than later in the year.

Aus vaccine plan was to give elderly and high risk their limited doses of Pfizer and everyone else get AZ.

Now the under 50s are being recommended not to have the AZ and their target of every Australian (who can have/wants vaccine) to be vaccinated by the end of the year has been thrown out.

Australia did so well at containing it, I can’t believe what’s happening with the vaccine rollout now. Another 40 million Pfizer won’t help if they’re at the back of the queue to get it, there’s already shortages in other countries.

Even with the extra doses ordered, not everyone will be vaccinated and Covid will spread in Australia eventually. I’m sure the majority of people in europe have been impressed and envious of the Australian approach for the last year but what about the next 12 months I wonder.

my Aus husband hasn't seen his parents since since Xmas 2015. We then got caught up in exam years so planned a big trip last summer which of course never happened. So it'll be 6-7 years without seeing them if nothing happens before 2022.

I am really hoping 2024 is worst case scenario stuff. But to be honest, I always thought the borders coming down was dependant not so much on vaccine roll out here, but other countries too. So as soon as a country is deemed safe enough, the air corridor will open as it has for NZ.. Its just the price we have to pay to live as we are, and if that means I don't get to see my folks for a while that's sad, but unavoidable. Personally I'm hoping for 2022, but planning for 2023.

Australian state government s sav d lives by hard lockdowns when needed. Our Federal government has been utterly useless and has completely stuffed up the rollout.

It’ll become like painting the forth bridge!
The ones vaccinated now (pointlessly imo in a zero Covid environment plus very slow roll out) will need vaccinating again in a year for or so and on and on it goes. Better imo to just go for it vaccine wise(like the US, EU and U.K.) and then just get on with life with an annual booster for the vulnerable.

Is there any indication that they'll eventually start letting people who have been vaccinated skip the hotel quarantine requirement? I really feel for the people who are trapped apart from their friends and families, and at least that way some might be able to get into the country to see each other, even if the person in Australia can't leave yet.

U.K. is apparently at herd immunity now ( more or less, not sure I entirely agree). Through it and generally out the other side. Zero Covid strategy counties are still at the beginning imo.

It’s strange to see this decision labelled a “ScoMo fuckup” when it’s a decision based on public health.

The decision came after two people developed blood clots in Australia after AZ. Australia doesn’t have a huge problem with community transmission so their benefit/risk assessment is going to be different from somewhere like the UK.

2024 seems too long though.

@sashagabadon

U.K. is apparently at herd immunity now ( more or less, not sure I entirely agree). Through it and generally out the other side. Zero Covid strategy counties are still at the beginning imo.

That’s the problem isn’t it. Australia has pretty much no immunity. Even allowing just vaccinated people in would likely bring covid in as vaccines don’t stop all transmission. So with the very slow vaccine rollout the choices are going to be accept that it will rip through the population, or have further harsh lockdowns every time cases are brought in, or keep boarders closed until the whole population including children are vaccinated which will be well into 2022 if not 2023. None of those are great options.

Yes many think it is great to live in Oz or NZ with zero Covid approach BUT having this approach was always going to put them at the back of the queue for vaccines and with a much longer timescale until 'normal' life returns. DH hasn't seen his family since 2018 and no doubt it will be ages years until real travel gets moving. It's really not a realistic approach, unfortunately, in a global world.

Is the average Australian annoyed about not being able to leave the country? I’m not sure if my perspective is skewed because I’m used to going to another country on a weekly basis, but it’s seems that Australia seems quite calm about the lack of international travel, despite having a high proportion of immigrants. I wonder what will happen to the level of immigration especially from Europe over the next decade.

@newstart1234

Is the average Australian annoyed about not being able to leave the country? I’m not sure if my perspective is skewed because I’m used to going to another country on a weekly basis, but it’s seems that Australia seems quite calm about the lack of international travel, despite having a high proportion of immigrants. I wonder what will happen to the level of immigration especially from Europe over the next decade.

I think for many of us, overseas travel is something you do every few years at most. I personally did 6 month trips at 17 & 21, then a week at 25 and a month at 30. I am now 37 and hadn't planned any trips before I turn 40. Of course there are people with relatives overseas and I know some people who had an annual holiday to Bali or New Zealand, and of course there was a heavy reliance on tourism and international students, but we can't fly to another country cheaply or quickly in the same way people within Europe, UK and Ireland can. For most people I know, the inability to travel between states has been the biggest/most frustrating issue.