VACCINES – AUSTRALIA

Class action on Covid-19 jabs doomed to fail: Defence

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Original article by Duncan Murray
The New Daily – Page: Online : 3-Dec-24

Brisbane law firm NR Barbi Solicitor is leading a class action against the federal government in the federal court, with the action alleging that it was negligent in approving Covid-19 vaccines. It seeks damages on behalf of those who suffered "serious adverse events" after taking one or more of the vaccines; one of those listed as members of the class action is Michelle Grace Hunder, who alleges she was diagnosed with vaccine-induced pericarditis. Kate Eastman SC, the barrister appearing for the respondents named in the action, told a hearing on Monday they were seeking to have the lawsuit thrown out on the basis it had no reasonable chance of being successful.

CORPORATES
NR BARBI SOLICITOR, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

CSL wins global H5 avian flu vaccine contracts as outbreak risk rises

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Original article by Tom Burton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 16-Jul-24

CSL has secured a deal to supply 4.8 million vials of its avian influence vaccine to the US. The European Union has in turn agreed to buy 650,000 doses, with an option to buy an additional 40 million shots. Jonathan Anderson from CSL’s Seqirus subsidiary says the zoonotic vaccines can be given to high-risk groups in the US and the EU, such as poultry, dairy and healthcare workers. CSL’s deals come amid growing global concern about the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has spread to every continent except Australia. Three different strains of the less severe H7 strain of bird flu has been detected in Australia.

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CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL, SEQIRUS PTY LTD

Dilemma over targeted vaccines

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Original article by Jamie Walker, Sarah Petty
The Australian – Page: 3 : 27-Jun-22

The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron are rapidly becoming the dominant strains of COVID-19 in Australia. They are better able to evade existing vaccines, but companies such as Pfizer and Moderna have indicated that they have had some success in developing vaccines that target these variants. While Australians who meet certain criteria can now receive a second booster dose, health authories may delay recommending a broader rollout until vaccines that target these variants are available. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is amongst those who support this view; the state recorded 5,824 new COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths on Sunday. There were 7,461 new infections and seven deaths in NSW.

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PFIZER INCORPORATED, MODERNA INCORPORATED, VICTORIA. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET

Huge AstraZeneca stockpile open to the young

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Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 9-Aug-21

New figures show that New South Wales and Victoria have access to a combined stockpile of more than one million unused doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The huge stockpile has been attributed to weak demand for the vaccine, which has been linked to a rare blood clotting disorder. The Victorian government has advised that it will make 200,000 doses of the vaccine available to people aged 18-39, with Premier Daniel Andrews stating that mass vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the NSW government plans to inoculate some 24,000 Year 12 students in designated hotspot areas, while the Therapeutic Goods Administration is expected to approve the Moderna vaccine within weeks.

CORPORATES
ASTRAZENECA PLC, VICTORIA. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. THERAPEUTIC GOODS ADMINISTRATION, MODERNA INCORPORATED

Don’t delay jab warning to over 50s

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Original article by Natasha Robinson, Adeshola Ore
The Australian – Page: 4 : 21-May-21

Amid reports of an increase in ‘vaccine hesitancy’, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has urged people over the age of 50 to receive AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid agrees, warning that the nation will be at risk of another outbreak as winter approaches. He adds that over-50s who hold out for an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer will not be a priority when more doses become available, as they chose not to have the vaccine that was available to them. Meanwhile, 24 cases of rare blood clots have now been reported among Australians who received the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. A 53-year-old South Australian man is among the six new cases; he is said to be in a ‘very serious condition’ in intensive care.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION LIMITED, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED

Pfizer warns that a Covid vaccine patent waiver could harm supply and safety

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Original article by Paul Karp
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 13-May-21

Australia is continuing to resist a global push to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer has used its submission to a parliamentary inquiry into vaccine fraud to argue that rather than increasing global supply of vaccines, a waiver may in fact make it more difficult to manufacture vaccines due to increased competition for raw materials. Pfizer has also highlighted the increased risk of Australians being offered counterfeit vaccines by scammers. Meanwhile, Moderna has advised that the federal government has agreed to buy 25 million doses of its mRNA-based vaccine, including 10 million doses in 2021. It is also holding talks about manufacturing the two-dose vaccine in Australia.

CORPORATES
PFIZER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, PFIZER INCORPORATED, MODERNA INCORPORATED

Experts eye Melbourne-made mRNA vaccines

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Original article by Paul Sakkal, Melissa Cunningham, Liam Mannix, Rachel Clun, Emma Koehn
The Age – Page: Online : 22-Apr-21

The Victorian government has announced that it will contribute $50m to the cost of establishing a facility to manufacture mRNA-based vaccines in Melbourne. Professor Colin Pouton of Monash University believes that this amount of funding would be sufficient to establish a facility for the local manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccines that were developed by Pfizer and Moderna. He says Australia could begin producing these vaccines within a year, adding that this could be accelerated if CSL – which is producing AstraZeneca’s adenovirus-based vaccine – becomes involved. Australia currently receives limited supplies of the Pfizer vaccine.

CORPORATES
MONASH UNIVERSITY, PFIZER INCORPORATED, MODERNA INCORPORATED, ASTRAZENECA PLC, CSL LIMITED – ASX CSL

Australians still set to take the vaccine: but opinion is divided on PM Scott Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Apr-21

Now 83% of Australians have either already been vaccinated (7%), are willing to be vaccinated (69%) or would be willing to be vaccinated once the Pfizer vaccine becomes available (7%) – a total of 83% and an increase of 3% points since February, according to a special Roy Morgan Snap SMS survey conducted on Friday April 9 and Saturday April 10, 2021. Although the vast majority of Australians across all ages, genders, States and political party allegiances are willing to take the vaccine or have already done so, there is a political divide. Only 13% of L-NP voters say they will not be vaccinated, while more than 1-in-5 Labor and Green voters and those who vote for Independents and other parties express unwillingness to be vaccinated. The nation is evenly split on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues with 51% disapproving of Morrison’s handling of the pandemic and 49% approving. Clear majority support for Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues is recorded among Australians aged 65+, people in country areas, NSW, Queensland, WA and Tasmania, as well as L-NP supporters. In contrast a majority of younger Australians, women, people in capital cities and Victoria as well as supporters of the ALP and Greens disapprove.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

PM shelves vaccination targets

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Original article by Remy Varga
The Australian – Page: 4 : 12-Apr-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised that the federal government will not set a revised target for all Australians who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to receive their first dose. Morrison said there are too many uncertainties regarding the vaccine rollout to set a new target, although he stated that the preference is still for all first doses to be administered by the end of 2021. The government has ordered an additional 20 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine following a recommendation that people under the age of 50 should not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns about blood clotting.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED

Clot fears force vaccine switch

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Original article by Natasha Robinson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 9-Apr-21

The federal government has acted on the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which has recommended that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine be restricted to people aged 50+. ATAGI stated that Pfizer’s vaccine is now preferred for people under the age of 50, after the European Medicines Agency concluded that there is a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a blood-clotting syndrome. Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy says the government has acted out of an "abundance of caution", given that the extremely rare syndrome mainly affects younger people. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has conceded that the target date for giving all Australians at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will need to be revised.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP ON IMMUNISATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED, EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY