Health policy consultant says ‘very poor decisions’ have left Australia in an ‘odd’ vaccine situation

The AstraZeneca vaccine will no longer be needed in Australia after October, according to Commonwealth modelling which shows most over-60s will be vaccinated by then.

An estimated 125,000 Moderna doses are expected to be delivered per week in September.

By October, the supply of Pfizer doses available in the country is expected to grow to 2.3 million, while up to 614,000 Modern doses could also be given.

Strategic Health Policy Consultant at UNSW, Bill Bowtell, says Australia has “got a very odd winter coming up” because of poor planning.

“It seems we’re going to have an undersupply of Pfizer for the next couple of months,” he told Ross and Russel.

“And I can’t imagine that the announcements in relation to AstraZeneca in the last couple of days and now are going to increase demand for AstraZeneca.”

Professor Bowtell says the federal government’s failure to diversify vaccine deals is to blame for the current situation.

“It goes back to some very poor decisions that were made a year ago when we did not do what we needed to do to get our hands on priority access to Pfizer and Moderna, unlike most of the comparable countries in the world,” he said.

“And here we are today, only three per cent vaccinated.”

Press PLAY below to hear Professor Bowtell’s thoughts on Australia’s vaccine rollout