The Hon Greg Hunt MP Minister for Health and Aged Care
Community pharmacies in selected rural and regional areas will be activated to support Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout out.
Over the coming weeks community pharmacies in rural and regional Queensland will be the first to be brought on board following a proposal to do so from the Queensland Government.
This proposal follows a recent national cabinet decision (22 April 2021) where it was agreed that States and territories can choose to incorporate community pharmacies into their roll-out plans in rural and remote areas where there are no or limited other points of presence.
I’m pregnant. Should I get a COVID-19 vaccine?
Without enough women in clinical trials, it is hard to say.
Credit: PhonlamaiPhoto / Getty Images
Getting any type of vaccination is a big decision when pregnant – but the more data we have the better informed we can be.
Unfortunately, around 75% of COVID-19 vaccine trials have excluded pregnant people, precluding them from the potentially life-saving benefits of vaccination. Because they were not part of clinical trials, there is not enough evidence around their safety and efficacy, which heavily impacts the decision to receive a vaccine.
“In a pandemic, where there’s a sense of urgency around getting important efficacy and safety data, we want that [data] in pregnant women as early as possible,” says Associate Professor Michelle Giles, an infectious diseases physician and specialist in maternal immunisation at Monash University. “If they’re not included in the original trials, there is a significant delay in getting
Australia’s COVID-19 response victim to federal operational failures, former secretary says
By Melissa Coade
Thursday May 6, 2021
(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Former health secretary Stephen Duckett has spoken to The Mandarin
about how governments at all levels have responded during this extraordinary time in history, and lists some of the key bureaucratic challenges holding the commonwealth government back.
From overnight border closures, quarantine quibbles and a vaccine rollout that stumbled at the starting gate the toll of COVID-19 has been serious and widely felt. So why, during a global pandemic, has Australia’s government response felt so bungled, and how long will it take before we reach herd immunity?
World hand hygiene day 2021: Effective hand hygiene at the point of care, now more than ever – a high level meeting convened by the World Health Organization Deputy Director General
World hand hygiene day 2021: Effective hand hygiene at the point of care, now more than ever – a high level meeting convened by the World Health Organization Deputy Director General 5 May 2021 13:00 – 14:30 CET
Policy makers and facility managers: Invest now to ensure effective hand hygiene action at the point of care.
Purpose of this high level meeting: To drive national and local action mainly by high level decision makers, in order to sustain improved hand hygiene behaviour at the point of care. The meeting is organized in the context of the World
From today, Australians aged 50 or older are eligible to receive their COVID-19 vaccine from special respiratory clinics or mass vaccination hubs in some states. Appointments with selected GPs are available from May 17.
However, a recent poll shows many people over 50 are hesitant to get vaccinated, particularly with the AstraZeneca vaccine earmarked for them. That’s mostly due to reports of very rare, but serious, blood clots that can develop after vaccination.
So it’s understandable why people want to know about any safety issues and how they relate to age. It’s also natural to want to know how well the vaccine works to protect people over 50.