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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Health COVID-19 Vaccine Lead Bhavini Patel · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, let's get straight into it because joining us on
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  Speaker 1: the line right now is Beavini Patel, who is the
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  Speaker 1: vaccine lead here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Berevini.
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  Speaker 3: Hillo there, How are you today?
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  Speaker 2: Very well? Thank you so much for your time.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Bevini, there has been a lot of discussion this
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  Speaker 1: morning about the COVID vaccine data. We've got the federal
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  Speaker 1: government saying one thing, the territory government saying another. But
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  Speaker 1: I guess the reality of it is you and your
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  Speaker 1: team who are on the ground would know exactly how
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  Speaker 1: we're looking when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine.
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  Speaker 3: That's correct, and you know, I think that you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to The sort of data discussion is interesting.
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  Speaker 3: But what we need right now is Territorians to feel
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  Speaker 3: comfortable to make a booking. And as you know, the
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  Speaker 3: Palmeston Vaccination Center open today. We've had seventeen hundred appointments
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  Speaker 3: made for this week for people in the Palmestan and
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  Speaker 3: rural area. And the data is the data, and we're
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  Speaker 3: only going to get increases in the data if people
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  Speaker 3: roll up their leaves and book an appointment.
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  Speaker 2: That is such a good point.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, at the end of the day, I
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  Speaker 1: think that no matter where we're sitting when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about those numbers, what we need is to try and
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  Speaker 1: get as many Territorians vaccinated as possible.
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  Speaker 2: Bavini, how many people are you able to.
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  Speaker 1: Get through that new vaccine hub out in Palmerston firstly
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  Speaker 1: through each week.
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  Speaker 3: So we've got really good capacity at the Palmerston Hub.
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  Speaker 3: There's fourteen vaccination stations. We've got capacity to have children
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  Speaker 3: twelve years and over and as you know, they were
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  Speaker 3: included last week. So we've got booth set up for
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  Speaker 3: children over the age of twelve and we've got fourteen stations,
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  Speaker 3: so we'll be able to do you know, well in
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  Speaker 3: excess of five hundred people a day.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, there's some good numbers.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that there's plenty of people out there
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  Speaker 1: probably right now actually getting their vaccines. BEVENI how has
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  Speaker 1: the I know that the role out in some of
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  Speaker 1: our more sort of you know, a bit further out
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  Speaker 1: of Darwin, so even Palmerston and Lichfield, how's the role
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  Speaker 1: out gone in some of those areas.
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  Speaker 3: So we've obviously had three venues available through anti health
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  Speaker 3: in the Darwin region. So we've had the Royal Darwin
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  Speaker 3: Hospital Hub for healthcare professionals, we've had Tracy Village and
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  Speaker 3: also the Darwin Vaccination Center at Marara. But we remember
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  Speaker 3: that we're also partnering with our GPS and community pharmacists
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  Speaker 3: and also with Danella Dilber who's Aboriginal Medical Service, and
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  Speaker 3: the Palmerston Respiratory Clinic. So we've got opportunities for people
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  Speaker 3: to get vaccinated through all of those GPS that are participating.
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  Speaker 3: And we've got GPS in Palmerston, in Bakewell in Humpty
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  Speaker 3: Do delivering the vaccine, and we've also got Danella Dilber
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  Speaker 3: and the Palmerston Respiratory Clinic offering vaccinations already in the
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  Speaker 3: Palmerston area.
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  Speaker 1: And how I'm not too sure how far you know
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  Speaker 1: your lead goes out when we talk then about those
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  Speaker 1: remote communities, but I know that we have seen in
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  Speaker 1: some of those remote communities a fantastic take up of
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine rollout, whereas others there's been real hesitancy and
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  Speaker 1: in some cases extreme misinformation.
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  Speaker 3: I think as well, yeah, that's that's correct, and it's
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  Speaker 3: not just in the remote community. So we've got really
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  Speaker 3: good uptake, right across the territory in some some communities
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  Speaker 3: and subpopulations, and then in other communities or subpopulations there
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  Speaker 3: is either hesitancy or this sort of thinking that well,
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  Speaker 3: we haven't had COVID community spread in the territory, so
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  Speaker 3: I don't really need to be worried about that. We're
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  Speaker 3: using our lockdowns and our public health activities like wearing
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  Speaker 3: masks and social distancing, and that's going to keep us safe. Now,
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  Speaker 3: what I would say to those people is just to
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  Speaker 3: look to what's happening in New South Wales where their
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  Speaker 3: one community case has now spread to know, literally thousands
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  Speaker 3: of cases every day, and people in regional New South Wales,
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  Speaker 3: which is a long way from Sydney now having community spread.
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  Speaker 3: And so the best way for us to protect ourselves,
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  Speaker 3: whether you live in a remote community or in an
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  Speaker 3: urban center in the Northern Territory is to get yourself
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  Speaker 3: vaccinated as soon as possible. Unlike other jurisdictions, we don't
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  Speaker 3: have any problems with stock and supply. There's plenty of
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  Speaker 3: vaccination appointments available either through the NTY Health Vaccination Center
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  Speaker 3: like the new one in Palmerston, or three Year Pharmacists
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  Speaker 3: three your GP or three your aboriginal medical service. So
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  Speaker 3: I think that's my key message is the delta variant
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  Speaker 3: is highly contagious. We need to protect ourselves now, and
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  Speaker 3: we do have appointments available right across the NT, including
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  Speaker 3: visiting teams to the remote communities and also vaccine being
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  Speaker 3: available at the health center, so people don't need to
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  Speaker 3: wait for the visiting team to come. They can pop
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  Speaker 3: to their local remote health center and be able to
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  Speaker 3: get vaccinated at their convenience.
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  Speaker 2: BAVENI.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the biggest things that I hear from people
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  Speaker 1: who are vaccine hesitant, well, one of them is I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what's in the vaccine. What would you say
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  Speaker 1: to those people listening this morning who have that mindset
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  Speaker 1: at the moment that they don't know what's in it.
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  Speaker 1: They don't want to put something in their body that
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  Speaker 1: they may have an adverse reaction to.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's certainly a very important piece of information that
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  Speaker 3: people need to be reassured that you know, whatever's going
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  Speaker 3: into their body, whether it's a vaccine or any other medicine,
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  Speaker 3: that they've got good information. And the best place to
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  Speaker 3: get good information is either on the anti Corona virus website.
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  Speaker 3: We've got some frequently asked questions, and there is a
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  Speaker 3: question that explains exactly what's in the vaccine. And also
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  Speaker 3: talking with your trusted healthcare professional, so whether it's your GP,
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  Speaker 3: your pharmacists or the nurse at your local health center
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  Speaker 3: and they will be able to go through in detail
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  Speaker 3: what's in the vaccine. And just for the listeners, you
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  Speaker 3: know that there's two different types of vaccines that we've
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  Speaker 3: got in Australia at the moment. They both contain the
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  Speaker 3: active ingredient, which is the either a piece of Messinger
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  Speaker 3: m NRA or a piece of a virus that is deactivated,
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  Speaker 3: and that's what stimulates your body to produce your immune response.
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  Speaker 3: And then there's other things like we do when we're
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  Speaker 3: making a cake. There's a bit of water, a bit
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  Speaker 3: of emulsifier to keep the medicine stable, and a bit
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  Speaker 3: of salt to make sure it's at the right what
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  Speaker 3: we call osmolality, so your body it doesn't sting when
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  Speaker 3: we put it into your arm.
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  Speaker 1: BAVENI, you know, I guess to really break it down
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  Speaker 1: to Layman's terms.
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  Speaker 2: You know, every year many.
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  Speaker 1: Of us go out and get our flu vaccine and
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  Speaker 1: we you know, we don't question, what is in that vaccine?
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  Speaker 1: Why do you think that some people are feeling so
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  Speaker 1: worried that there's something in this COVID vaccine that you
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  Speaker 1: know that is I don't know that they're scared of.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think I think there's probably a couple
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  Speaker 3: of things. We've all been living with uncertainty with the
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  Speaker 3: coronavirus pandemic for you know, over eighteen months now. And
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  Speaker 3: I know myself and the people that I you know,
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  Speaker 3: that are in my family and friends, that low you know,
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  Speaker 3: that sort of low level anxiety has been with us
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  Speaker 3: for a long time, and so we sort of are
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  Speaker 3: in this situation where we don't know what's going to
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  Speaker 3: happen tomorrow. We don't know whether there's a lockdown, you know,
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  Speaker 3: whether we're going to be in lockdown. We don't know
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  Speaker 3: if we get on a plane that we might be
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  Speaker 3: in an exposure situation. So that anxiety has been with
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  Speaker 3: us for a very long period of time, and so
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  Speaker 3: when there are options for you know, whether we do lockdowns,
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  Speaker 3: whether whether the borders should be closed, whether we should
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  Speaker 3: be vaccinated, those kind of questions take on a much
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  Speaker 3: bigger meaning for us. Then, say the fluvacs are you know,
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  Speaker 3: prior to COVID, where it was just part of you know,
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  Speaker 3: this is what we do every year. Yeah, so I
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  Speaker 3: think that sort of low level anxiety that we've been
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  Speaker 3: living with for a long time really makes us question
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  Speaker 3: and we don't really know what the right thing to
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  Speaker 3: do is, and so it makes us question a little
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  Speaker 3: bit more the decisions that are where being asked to
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  Speaker 3: mate as part of the pandemic response.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But any one of the other things that I hear
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  Speaker 1: quite often is why do I.
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  Speaker 2: Need to get it if I could still get COVID.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. So again, if we look to what's happening in
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  Speaker 3: New South Wales, lots of people are going to hospital,
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  Speaker 3: people are ending up needing intensive care treatment, and unfortunately
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  Speaker 3: we've had a number of deaths from this current outbreak
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  Speaker 3: in the South Wales. And when we look at those
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  Speaker 3: people who've ended up in hospital and unfortunately passing away,
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  Speaker 3: most of them have either been unvaccinated or only partially
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  Speaker 3: vaccinated in that they've only had one dose. And so
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  Speaker 3: what the vaccine does is it protects you from severe
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  Speaker 3: disease and limits how strong the COVID, how unwell COVID
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  Speaker 3: is going to make you. So there's a small percentage
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  Speaker 3: of people who get the vaccine will get an infection.
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  Speaker 3: It's around five less than five percent. But it's if
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  Speaker 3: you have the vaccine and you do get COVID, you're
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  Speaker 3: not You're going to get less severe disease and you're
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  Speaker 3: not going to end up in hospital or in ICU.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the benefit of getting the vaccine is a
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  Speaker 3: small percentage of people who get the vaccine may get COVID,
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  Speaker 3: but it won't be as bad as if you are unvaccinated.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Bevini Patel, the vaccination lead here in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you having a chat with us this
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  Speaker 1: morning at incredibly short notice and really trying to break
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  Speaker 1: that down as simply as possible for our listeners.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the key message is we've got appointments available.
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  Speaker 3: We've got plenty of supply, so either hop online or
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  Speaker 3: ring the eighteen hundred number to make yourself an appointment
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  Speaker 3: in the next week or so. That's my challenge to territoriums.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Bevini. I really appreciate you speaking
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Great, Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you