Health News at Your Fingertips

Just a bit more on the AstraZeneca name change. The Therapeutic Goods Administration says the change to Vaxzevria will make it consistent with the brand name used in Europe and Canada:

The name is now consistent with that used overseas, including in the European Union and Canada. This is expected to alleviate confusion and further clarify that the vaccine produced by CSL and Seqirus in Melbourne is the same as that produced internationally. This name change will also help facilitate international recognition for Australians who have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Importantly, this is the only change to the vaccine. All other aspects, such as manufacturing and quality control, are unchanged and align with the way the vaccine is produced in other jurisdictions.

At this stage, it is estimated that supply in Australia of the VAXZEVRIA-branded product will commence in late 2021. Once supply of the vaccine commences under the new name, the vaccine will no longer be supplied under the original name. Some stock with the original name may still be in use after the name change.

Another thing, it has been pointed out to me in the NHS/NZ version of the Covidsafe app that you can specify time of interaction and the distance between people who might be deemed close contacts, so Stuart Robert was incorrect on that part, too.

AstraZeneca is changing the name of the Covid-19 vaccine to … Vaxzevria, which looks as easy to pronounce as it is to type out.

I am sure this will take off.

For the record, the Pfizer vaccine is technically called Comirnaty, but no one calls it that.

The employment minister, Stuart Robert, was on the ABC just then talking about many things, but on the Covid situation he was once again asked about the Covidsafe contact tracing app, which no one appears to be using now in the outbreaks across the country.

Robert claimed it was being used, and then said some incorrect things about the Apple/Google exposure notification framework that the NHS and New Zealand app use:

Because in the framework of the exposure framework by Apple and Google they determine the parameters, and our Covidsafe app we set parameters at 1.5 metres and 15 minutes, we can adjust that in time to meet the national response or any time we get a new variant or new requirements. If you were to take the Apple and Google approach, you dial out completely all of your public health, there is no public health tracking and tracing, no data from the framework that goes to health officials, and they determine the settings. I’m not so sure that’s what we need on our tracking and tracing and quarantine.

This is not true. You can design the app so that health officials do get notifications and contact details on top of the automatic notifications sent out to people identified as close contacts.

But given the situation in New South Wales, tech experts are arguing that switching to something like the NHS app would work in addition to contact tracing. So if someone is identified as a close contact, they’d get an alert and then could isolate quicker than a contact tracer could potentially call them, meaning they’d be infectious in the community for a shorter period of time.

The federal Labor MP for Chifley in Sydney’s western suburbs, Ed Husic, has expressed confusion over what the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, means about living with Delta.

Husic says it is unclear what daily case numbers she thinks NSW will have to live with:

Frankly what does it mean when the premier says we need to live with it? What are the numbers in her mind when we reach the position where we can live with it?

Clearly we cannot get to a point, I said this weeks ago, I couldn’t see how the lockdown will be lifted after August with the rate of infections, even if they halve the rate of infection every week for subsequent weeks we would still be at the point where we were when the lockdown was first imposed in late June.

So we can’t have this type of utterance by our premier saying that we need to learn to live with it without any form of clarity about what that means.

He says vaccination rates need to get higher, and there should be financial support for people who get tested and need to isolate at home, which “ensures that they don’t feel like the only option they have is to leave to work when they don’t have the ability to look after themselves financially”.

NSW police are investigating a “selfish and sickening fraud” after money was apparently exchanged for Covid-19 vaccination appointments at a major hospital in Sydney.

AAP understands people on the Chinese language social media app WeChat were asked to pay $300 to secure a quick turnaround booking for Pfizer at Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney’s inner west.

The NSW police minister, David Elliott, on Thursday described it as “probably the most selfish and sickening fraud case that you could have occur during a pandemic”.

“A number of people have been attempting to gain profit using the anxieties of members of the public to get a vaccine earlier than is necessary,” Elliott told reporters.

Health staff identified suspicious bookings through the eligibility checking process and then called the police, the Sydney Local Health District says.

The state’s cybercrime unit set up a strike force over the weekend.

A police spokesperson told AAP that members of the public had attended the hospital for “fraudulent vaccination bookings”.

“Police have been told the fraudulent bookings were made through an online vaccination booking service under allocations for essential healthcare workers,” the spokesperson said.

About 60 people who were ineligible for priority bookings made appointments meant for health care workers over the weekend, police say.

A “small number” paid for them, Superintendent Matthew Craft said on Thursday.

The issue was uncovered after people were asked to verify their status as essential healthcare workers and could not do so.

Craft said somebody had accessed the online booking system and changed the employment status for the 60 people.

Police have not yet identified who is behind the scam but are investigating whether a health staffer could be involved.

Asked what Australia’s humanitarian intake is for this year in actual places, not just a commitment, Alex Hawke says he cannot say, but indicates the pandemic has slowed the processing and arrival of refugees under the program. (Australia has committed to taking 13,750 this year.)

I will make an announcement in due course. Some is still to be finalised with some people moving from Afghanistan right now. There are many factors. It will slow down further with Covid in terms of processing. We are aware of it. We work with the UNHCR, other partners, but Covid is slowing down the movement of people, and of course we have border exemptions and quarantine regime … We will keep working so we can move those people to Australia.

The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing. He is asked just how many over the 3,000 humanitarian visas promised for people from Afghanistan the Australian government is willing to accept.

Hawke doesn’t give an exact number, but says “it will be a bigger number and it will continue to update people as the humanitarian crisis and the situation evolves after the immediate emergency”.

He says Australia is “not seeking to” match the 20,000 intake figure the UK has said it will accept.

He says people from Afghanistan will receive first priority in the 13,750 humanitarian visa allocation for this year, and priority for processing.

On whether that will take places from people in other countries, Hawke says the humanitarian program frequently prioritises people from some parts of the world depending on the crisis:

It goes on depending on the emerging situations. Australia is still the third most generous entry in the world of resettling refugees every single year. Australians can be very proud of our successful humanitarian refugee resettlement program.

On whether he expects lots of 16- to 39-year-olds to cancel AstraZeneca appointments now with bookings opening up for Pfizer from 30 August, Scott Morrison urges people to get whatever vaccine they can get as soon as possible:

The best vaccine you can get is the one that is available right now. If you are in Sydney get vaccinated today. Go out and do that right now. That is my clear advice. And that is what we want Australians to do.

That’s the end of the press conference.

Asked whether educated women in particular who might be targeted by the Taliban might be the focus of 3,000 humanitarian visas for people fleeing Afghanistan, Scott Morrison indicates it will be:

We will identify people suitable for the program. We have a particular tranche that focuses on vulnerable women and girls. Always have. In fact, when I was minister we increased that quota. It has stayed high throughout the program. It has been the most significant and highest priority, I would argue, amongst our humanitarian program and always receives keen interest from those administering it.