Physicians support ATAGI advice, and say public messaging campaign will be vital to achieving broad vaccination coverage

2 July 2021

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians supports ATAGI’s vaccine advice that while Pfizer is the preferred vaccine for people under 60, if Pfizer is not yet readily available then AstraZeneca can be used following an informed discussion about an individual’s personal risks and benefits with their GP or specialist physician.

RACP President Professor John Wilson says “We must continue to take the advice of the medical experts, however we need to do much more to get our population vaccinated.”

The RACP understands that the supply of vaccines has been a challenge for broader rollout and look forward to the expected increase in the supply over the coming months.

“We welcome the announcement of the four-phase roadmap out of COVID-19 but we note that an essential component of this plan is that access to and uptake of vaccinations increases. To help achieve that, the government also needs to develop a much more effective communications campaign to support the rollout.”

“There is absolutely no reason why Australia should lag behind other similar countries in the rollout with our first-rate health system when the vaccines are available.”

“While we are pleased with the increase of doses administered to the residential aged care sector, we also remain concerned about low vaccination rates in the disability sector.”

New data shows that fewer than one in five Australians in disability care have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 more than four months into the rollout[1] and data on the number of disability support workers vaccinated is unavailable.

“The government rightly included disability care residents in the first phase for vaccination, yet we aren’t even halfway through this priority vaccination group and we’re four months into the vaccine rollout.” Professor Wilson said.

The College welcomes the announcement of a new COVID-19 vaccine indemnity scheme and looks forward to hearing further detail about the scheme (https://www.pm.gov.au/media/national-cabinet-statement-5).


[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/01/hit-and-miss-less-than-one-in-five-australians-in-disability-care-vaccinated-against-covid-19

Close overlay