Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

How Australia’s vaccine rollout overlooked people with disabilities

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A draft report from the disability royal commission found the federal health department’s approach to the vaccination rollout has been ‘seriously deficient’, having overlooked people with disabilities in favour of aged care residents.

Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to David Belcher, a disability advocate and city council member in Lake Macquarie, about the difficulty he faced in accessing a Covid-19 vaccination. And inequality editor Luke Henriques-Gomes talks about the failures of the Australian government in protecting some of its most vulnerable populations

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French study of over 22m people finds vaccines cut severe Covid risk by 90%

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Largest study of its kind also finds vaccines appear to protect against worst effects of Delta variant

Vaccination reduces the risk of dying or being hospitalised with Covid-19 by 90%, a French study of 22.6 million people over the age of 50 has found.

The research published on Monday also found that vaccines appear to protect against the worst effects of the most prevalent virus strain, the Delta variant.

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Calls to ban neofascist groups after violence at Rome Covid pass protests

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Founder of far-right party among 12 arrested after mob storms A&E department and trade union HQ

Calls are growing in Italy to abolish neofascist movements after violent protests against Covid-19 vaccine passes in Rome, during which demonstrators tried to force their way into the official residence of the Italian prime minister.

Twelve people, including Roberto Fiore, the founder of the far-right Forza Nuova party, were arrested in connection to Saturday’s unrest, in which a group of about 30 raided a hospital accident and emergency unit – injuring four medical workers – and the offices of a trade union were stormed.

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Australia Covid live update: Victoria records 1,890 cases, five deaths; NSW 477 cases, six deaths; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup

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Victoria records 1,890 new cases and five deaths; NSW records 477 cases and six deaths; 30 new cases in ACT; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup; Perrottet says NSW wants ‘to open international borders as quickly as possible’, as lockdown for those fully vaccinated set to lift at midnight. Follow updates live

Speers pivoted from asking communications minister Paul Fletcher about holding social media companies to account to holding the federal government to account.

There was a lot of back and forth and at one point Fletcher referenced the resignation of Gladys Berejiklian as NSW premier as evidence of the failings of an anti-corruption authority.

The government’s proposed federal integrity commission wouldn’t be allowed to hold any public hearings. Why not? What’s there to hide?

David, the proposed federal integrity commission would have the powers of a royal commission to deal with criminal corrupt conduct at a commonwealth level. And of course ...

No public hearings, which is my question. Why not?

It will go through an investigation process.And then, if appropriate, it will refer material to the director of public prosecutions, and then you go through an open-court process.

This commission wouldn’t have public hearings. I mean, don’t you think voters, taxpayers, deserve to see what’s going on? I mean, we wouldn’t know about Daryl Maguire’s business dealings from his parliamentary office and kickbacks he was receiving. Don’t we need to see this stuff?

I think the outcomes last week where a very popular and highly competent premier stood down highlights some of the flaws in the model. So we don’t support a model where you are presumed guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

Your government, of course, tried to scrap Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. You were worried about protecting free speech. Now it sounds like you want to go in the other direction and make it harder to say things that can be considered racist.

The test, David, will be the impact on the individual. If a reasonable person would consider that it was intended to harm and if it’s menacing, harassing or offensive – those words, by the way, taken from an existing provision in the criminal code dealing with online content. So what we’re doing is leaning in on this issue and all of the issues that arise in relation to online safety. Our government’s taken a leadership position on this since we came to government. The Australian eSafety Commissioner, set up in 2015, is world-leading ...

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Coronavirus live news: two million across England have had booster jab; Russia records record daily death toll

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Brazil’s death toll passes 600,000; study finds cases of anxiety and depression increased dramatically in 2020

Russia reported 968 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, its highest single-day death toll since the start of the pandemic.

There were 29,362 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the government coronavirus task force said.

Singapore’s transport minister has said the country will allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated travellers from Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Canada and the US.

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Anti-vaccine chiropractors capitalizing on Covid and sowing misinformation

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A vocal minority tout their supplements as alternatives, donate large sums of money to anti-vaccine organizations and sell anti-vaccine ads on Facebook and Instagram, the AP discovered

The flashy postcard, covered with images of syringes, beckoned people to attend Vax-Con ’21 to learn “the uncensored truth” about Covid-19 vaccines.

Participants traveled from around the country to a Wisconsin Dells resort for a sold-out convention that was, in fact, a sea of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and the pandemic.

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Some US patients waiting for organ transplants must get Covid vaccine or be removed from list

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Transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs and non-vaccinated recipients are more likely to die of infection

Health systems in Colorado and Washington are removing unvaccinated patients from organ transplant lists, given research that unprotected recipients are much more likely to die from Covid-19.

UCHealth in Colorado told a patient on the kidney transplant waiting list that she needed to get vaccinated in the next 30 days or she would be removed from the list. Leilani Lutali told 9News that she was the patient in question, and she hasn’t been vaccinated yet because of her religious views.

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Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic

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Exclusive: Report from planning exercise in 2016 alerted government of need to stockpile PPE and set up contact tracing system

Senior health officials who war-gamed the impact of a coronavirus hitting the UK, warned four years before the onset of Covid-19 of the need for stockpiles of PPE, a computerised contact tracing system and screening for foreign travellers, the Guardian can reveal.

The calls to step up preparations in areas already identified as shortcomings in the government’s response to Covid, emerged from a previously unpublished report of a health planning exercise in February 2016 that imagined a coronavirus outbreak.

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Coronavirus live: 1.1m in UK estimated to have long Covid; Finland to pause Moderna jab for men under 30

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Official figures suggest 1.7% of the population have long-Covid symptoms, Finnish decision comes after similar moves in Sweden and Denmark

A quick snap from Reuters reports that Uzbekistan has started producing the Russian-developed Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine domestically in a joint project with Russia. The nation already manufactures the Chinese-developed ZF-UZ-VAC2001 vaccine on its territory.

Just a little more from the UK’s education secretary and former vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi here. As part of his media round this morning he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain “My pledge to your viewers and the country, as the prime minister pledged, is children will catch up by the end of this Parliament. By next month, I’ll have the first cut of the evaluation of the tutoring programme, but it already looks good.”

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Regional health experts and local mayors fear NSW reopening could spread Covid

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Tweed shire mayor says ‘many regions are facing the very real likelihood of their first Covid-19 outbreak’ ahead of the state lifting travel restrictions

All 10 local government areas in New South Wales with double-dose Covid vaccination rates below 50% are regional, with six of the 10 currently affected by outbreaks.

This could leave those areas at greater risk of adverse effects on health infrastructure and businesses in these areas, as NSW plans to reopen.

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Australia Covid live news update: Victoria records 1,420 cases, 11 deaths as year 12s return to school; NSW nears 70% double vaccination target

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Banking regulator tightens rules on home loans; ‘dozens’ of construction protesters have Covid, John Setka says; Brittany Higgins appointed to Global Institute for Women’s Leadership; NSW to reach reopening vaccine rate today or tomorrow – follow all today’s news

The numbers are out in Victoria and there has been a bit of a drop, with 1,420 new cases recorded.

Sadly, the state has recorded 11 deaths overnight.

There’s a number of areas within the roadmap can be looked at.

There’s a number of issues that I want to raise with our health officials this morning. Whatever we do, we want to make sure it’s done in a way that keeps people safe.

That’s an incredibly positive thing. There’s been a slowdown, but there’s naturally going to be a slowdown if the vaccination rate gets to a high point.

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Americans are desperate to visit Hawaii – but apparently not enough to get vaccinated

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Those travelling to the sun-kissed islands have allegedly faked negative Covid test results or vaccine records

If you’re an unvaccinated American headed to Hawaii, and you want to avoid quarantine, you’ll need to provide the state with a negative Covid test.

Alternatively, you could attempt to fake out authorities – and get arrested for it.

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England urged to step up vaccinations to avoid winter Covid surge

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Prof Neil Ferguson calls for booster rollout and teenagers’ second jabs to be accelerated to ease NHS pressure

The distribution of Covid boosters for the most vulnerable people and second shots of vaccine for teenagers should be accelerated to help prevent a winter surge of coronavirus overburdening the NHS, a senior scientist has said.

Prof Neil Ferguson, the head of the influential disease modelling group at Imperial College London, said England’s vaccine strategy had been “cautious” in recent months, with many teenagers having only one jab, and boosters for the most vulnerable people given no sooner than six months after their second dose.

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Global vaccine rollout vital to securing deal for nature, warns UN biodiversity chief

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Elizabeth Maruma Mrema says access to Covid jabs for developing world will be critical to the success of in-person Kunming Cop15 summit

Governments hoping for a global agreement to halt biodiversity loss must put more effort into access to Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, the UN’s biodiversity chief has warned.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the Kunming Cop15 summit, at which governments will try to forge a “Paris agreement for nature”, was vital for halting the global crisis of species loss.

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Australia news live update: Melbourne to set Covid lockdown world record, Dominic Perrottet set to become NSW premier

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Melbourne overtaking Buenos Aires as city that has spent most days under stay-at-home orders. Follow all the updates

When it comes to Melbourne now, by some counts, becoming the most locked-down city in the world, premier Daniel Andrews says he is proud of the sacrifices Melburnians have made over the pandemic.

Yesterday he called on Melburnians to make a final push before lockdown ends in coming weeks, reports Callum Godde from AAP.

We are going to get past this. We are going to end this lockdown and open up, and all that we will enjoy then will be a result of all that we have given.

If we let it rip last year, we would have had severe mortality and morbidity. It’s just that we haven’t had the same luck as other place.

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Australia Covid news live update: Victoria records 1,220 cases; NSW announces new rules for 70% vaccine milestone; Brisbane readies for NRL grand final

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NSW reports 10 deaths amid ‘dramatic drop’ in new Covid cases with 70% double-dose target in sight; cases continue to rise in Victoria amid vaccine mandate protests; Queensland readies for NRL grand final at Suncorp Stadium tonight as state records no new local Covid infections; ACT records 38 new local cases; 32 of New Zealand’s 33 new cases in Auckland. Follow live

Speers has asked Husic what he thinks of the state government’s plan to open up once 70% of adults are vaccinated?

Husic:

As someone who lives in a locked down LGA, who represents residents who have gone through some of the toughest measures across the LGAs in Western Sydney, we clearly want to get out of this.

As Labor has said, we at the national level support the national plan and believe that we do need to get out as quickly as we can, but it does require in particular a focus on the safety elements of this.

Icac is actually not allowed under law to delay or defer investigations. What do you think, though, about the criticism that it has chosen a terrible time to do this?

In response to your question first off, I would say that it is a bit hard for Gladys Berejiklian to make that point when she started cancelling her own press conferences, her daily press conferences. If this was such an important time, she would be there every single day. I think that needs to be borne in mind and I would urge people to consider that, but I guess overall I would understand, the two points I would quickly make:

I understand how people are confused and disoriented about the events of Friday, seeing the premier go that quickly, but it is important to emphasise that ... this explosive event was lit in 2020 when you had a New South Wales premier appear before Icac as a person being monitored, a person of interest, and clearly there was an issue there, and the reality is Icac did not force Gladys Berejiklian to resign, she did that of her own accord, following 12 months of saying that she wouldn’t do that.

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NSW reports ‘dramatic drop’ in new Covid cases as Melbourne edges closer to world’s longest lockdown

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Dr Kerry Chant warns next week is ‘critical’ for state as Victoria and ACT see slight declines in numbers

Victoria’s Covid infections have dropped slightly with Melbourne’s 246-day lockdown to become the world’s longest on Tuesday.

And while New South Wales recorded a substantial drop in local Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the state continued to see a rise in Covid-related hospitalisations and deaths.

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‘Tragic and completely avoidable’: US hits 700,000 Covid-19 deaths

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Joe Biden laments ‘astonishing death toll’ as 100,000 die since June despite the availability of vaccines

The Covid-19 death toll in the US has now surpassed 700,000, despite the Covid-19 vaccines’ wide availability, in what one expert called a “tragic and completely avoidable milestone”.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the US went just past 700,000 deaths on Friday; the US had previously reached 600,000 deaths in June. The country has had a total of 43.6m confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins.

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Covid antiviral pill halves hospitalisations and deaths, maker says

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If approved, Merck’s drug would be first simple oral medication shown to be effective against coronavirus

An antiviral pill was found to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by half in patients newly diagnosed with Covid-19, according to results announced on Friday.

If approved, the drug made by the US firm Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics would be the first simple oral medication shown to be effective against Covid-19, which would mark a crucial advance in the fight against the pandemic. Other drugs, such as remdesivir, have been shown to be effective if given early, but all currently approved treatments need to be given as injections or IV infusions.

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John Key calling New Zealand’s Covid response ‘North Korean’ isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s wrong | Brian Ng

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Irresponsible statements are fuel for those who falsely believe their rights have been taken away

When former prime minister John Key referred to New Zealand as a “smug hermit kingdom” in his widely disseminated op-ed, I thought it was pushing it a bit, but not completely off the mark – we closed our borders to outsiders, after all. What I didn’t expect was for him to start calling the government’s response “North Korean”. This isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s obviously wrong.

This is what North Korea’s been through: it closed its borders at the beginning of 2020, before most of the world put itself into lockdown. It stopped all shipments in and out of the country, including China, which is its largest trading partner and aid donor. Fishing in its surrounding waters and even salt harvesting was halted, for fear Covid may be transmitted that way. Foreign diplomatic staff left on one-way tickets: one group of Russians took a hand-powered rail cart out of the country.

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