Getting the vaccine in Australia

[Ozgirl75]

So I’ve seen today that they will begin rolling out the vaccine next year and we’ll be given it according to age groups - all fair enough. But children aren’t getting it at all. And the airlines are saying they won’t allow unvaccinated people to travel so I just don’t get how that works? Will those of us with children just never be able to travel until they’re old enough for a vaccine? Because that basically means my children won’t be able to leave the country for 10 years! Surely I’m missing something here.
Equally surely they can’t let children just travel unvaccinated as they will pick it up and spread it through Australia.

I dunno but I assume that once enough people are vaccinated it'll be ok?
Expats are screwed right now. If they want to go see family will they need to quarantine when they return from the UK?
They'll probably do test at airport and self isolation for 10 days perhaps?

Nope thats not true, kids are going to be last to get it but they will be getting it.

@sunbunnydownunder

Nope thats not true, kids are going to be last to get it but they will be getting it.

It's not high priority in oz. They're saying even those vaccinated won't be able to just stroll in as they're not sure if it stops the spread and you're still carriers of the virus.

Maybe they’ll go back to home isolation again ?

I suspect this is another one of the not-quite-thought-through things in the whole COVID area. Not a criticism - they are literally making it up as they go along and doing a pretty reasonable job when you look at other places.

My guess would be Qantas’ “must be vaccinated to travel” rule will only apply to over 18s. And presumably the hope is that herd immunity will stop any cases in kids from triggering an outbreak? But that’s just a guess obviously.

I imagine if they do indeed bring in the vaccination rule for airlines then they would have to have exemptions for people who cannot be safely vaccinated, if the vaccine isn’t approved for children they won’t stop them flying.
If you are medically unable to be vaccinated I would assume a medical letter will be enough evidence.

We will see if Qantas actually implement the rule.

I’m just crossing my fingers that this time next year my family will be able to visit

My guess is that you will be able to take your child to a travel doctor and pay an extortionate amount of money to get the vaccine privately.

@Antipodeancousin that’s what I’m basically hoping too. We have a business in the U.K. as well as family and it would be financially worthwhile for us to get vaccinated early, so long as we can actually get flights.

@Ginandplatonic I think that makes perfect sense. Once lots of people have the vaccine presumably it won’t be so serious if a few people come back with it, as it won’t trigger a huge outbreak.

I've been wondering the same thing about kids and travel when vaccines aren't being rolled out to them at this point.
I wondered if they would count as exempt? I'm just looking forward to the first ones starting over here, especially with the new outbreak in Northern beaches.