He said the latest developments with the AstraZeneca vaccine would only drive up reluctance by some to get the jab.
“If you’re uncertain in any way,there’s no way that the events of the last few weeks are going to increase your confidence,” he said. “They’re going to cause you to ask more questions,which is totally understandable. Why wouldn’t you have questions when everything is happening so fast,there’s so much uncertainty,and you’re hearing about adverse side effects associated with one of the vaccines.”
But Professor Vally said it was important to put the risks of AstraZeneca into perspective.
There has been about one case of thrombosis (blood clots) with thrombocytopenia (very low platelets) for every 295,000 of the vaccines given in Australia,with three cases and one death reported to date.
Professor Vally said this meant a person was just as likely to be struck by lightning this year as they were to develop a rare side effect from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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It is estimated that there are five to 10 deaths a year from lightning strikes in Australia and more than 100 injuries.
“But the problem with this is that it’s still a risk for some people and it’s a risk that they may feel that they don’t want to take when they think that there’s a choice to make,” he said.
Leading vaccine expert Associate Professor Holly Seale said it was too soon to know the implications of the change in clinical guidance around AstraZeneca,with data on public confidence still being collated.
“What we may find is that actually confidence in the vaccine program may be consistent because people are viewing the government as taking the necessary steps ... monitoring and making revisions to their program recommendation,” the UNSW infectious diseases social scientist said.
Associate Professor Seale predicted announcements around Australia’s travel bubbles with other countries might drive up vaccine uptake.
“It could shift things to a positive light with people saying this vaccine could potentially take us back overseas to see family and friends.”
Dr Harper said one of the things that would likely influence people’s acceptance of vaccines was their level of trust in the government.
He said before the news broke that advice would change to preference the Pfizer vaccine over AstraZeneca in Australia the top public social media posts were often much more positive (a celebrity getting the jab,for example).
“Whereas this time the most shared posts were all criticism and … people criticising the government’s rollout,” he said.
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