The Federal Government has approved the use of two new covid vaccines which will become available in a few weeks. The incoming Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are targeted to a newer strain of the virus. Their approval has been welcomed by experts who warn Australia is currently experiencing a covid wave and at the same time has a low take up of booster shots.
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00:00 In his Melbourne CBD pharmacy, Stephen Spears is on the front line of the ongoing vaccine
00:07 rollout. It's been slow but things are picking up.
00:11 The number of cases out there seems to be rising at a rapid rate so people are starting
00:16 to get concerned.
00:17 And there might be more on the way with the approval of two new vaccines produced by Moderna
00:22 and Pfizer and targeted to the XBB1.5 COVID variant. Australia's expert advisory group
00:29 ATAGI says the new jabs will offer a modest improvement in protection.
00:34 I accepted the advice to approve that vaccine as one of the COVID vaccines. We have about
00:40 three million doses in warehouses right now.
00:43 Even though XBB1.5 isn't necessarily the sub-variant that's dominant right now, the good thing
00:48 about this updated vaccine is that those sub-variants that are around at the moment are still quite
00:52 closely related.
00:54 And while the new vaccines are good, they won't be available until the 11th of December
01:00 and a wave of COVID infections is happening now.
01:03 But it's simply too soon to know if we are past the peak or when that peak might be.
01:07 Effectively, every family in Australia will encounter COVID most likely in the next three
01:12 or four months. And what that means is thousands of deaths.
01:16 The head of the Burnout Institute managed to avoid COVID this whole time until now.
01:21 I don't feel back to normal. I mean, I feel 90%.
01:25 While nearly two million Australian adults have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine in the last
01:30 six months, almost 18 million haven't. 27% of those over 75 are up to date, compared
01:37 to 20% of those between 65 and 74, and just 6% of adults under 65.
01:44 You have to have a campaign that sits around this. It's too little, too late.
01:49 The Health Minister's advice is not to wait.
01:52 The best vaccine is the one you can get.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]