The ‘lovely little trick’ an epidemiologist says would protect Australia from future COVID outbreaks

There are growing calls for airline and quarantine workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to keep the virus out of Australia.

It comes after a bus driver who transports airline staff from Sydney Airport tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday.

Epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, Professor Tony Blakely, says vaccinating airline and quarantine staff is a “lovely little trick” to protect Australia from future outbreaks, and would be “a really effective thing to do”.

“It’s actually an intriguing possibility that Australia and New Zealand and a few other countries have,” he told Stephen Quartermain and Tony Leonard, filling in for Ross and Russel.

“If the vaccine stops people getting infected, or makes them less infectious, which I strongly believe it will … it would be a very sensible thing to do.

“That can actually increase … that barrier between us and the rest of the world.

“It stops the virus getting in, in the first place, and your healthcare workers are therefore not exposed.”

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