Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Lead for the NT's Covid-19 vaccine rollout Associate Professor Bhavini Patel answers questions around boosters, and the novavax vaccine

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Lead for the NT's Covid-19 vaccine rollout Associate Professor Bhavini Patel answers questions around boosters, and the novavax vaccine · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, as I said, we know that there are plenty
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  Speaker 1: of questions being asked around the territory at the moment
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  Speaker 1: about the well, the booster, if you've had COVID, and
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of other questions. Now joining me on the
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  Speaker 1: line is Associate Professor Beavini Patel, the lead for the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory COVID nineteen vaccine roll out.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Berevini.
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  Speaker 3: Hi Katie, how are you? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Really well?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time, Bevini. I know
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  Speaker 1: we're getting a lot of questions at the moment, lots
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  Speaker 1: of people wondering as those COVID numbers continue, people who've
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  Speaker 1: then recovered from COVID wondering how long do they need
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  Speaker 1: to wait before they get their booster.
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  Speaker 3: So it's really easy. You can get your booster as
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  Speaker 3: soon as you've recovered from your illness, so as long
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  Speaker 3: as you haven't got any symptoms. The medical advice now
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  Speaker 3: is you can get it straight away once you've reached
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  Speaker 3: your three months timeline after your second dose.
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  Speaker 1: And is that the most sort of optimum time to
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  Speaker 1: get it straight away or is it more effective if
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  Speaker 1: you waited a little bit longer.
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  Speaker 3: The data the research data showing us that getting it
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  Speaker 3: as soon as your symptoms have gone is safe. So
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  Speaker 3: it's not going to cause any any interaction with your
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  Speaker 3: immune system, which some people are worried about. But you
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  Speaker 3: can delay it up to four months because some people's
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  Speaker 3: symptoms do from COVID do last quite a long time.
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  Speaker 3: So any time from when you're feeling well up to
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  Speaker 3: four months after your your symptoms is the current recommendation.
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  Speaker 3: But we do know with omicron it's very important to
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  Speaker 3: get your third dose as soon as possible because that
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  Speaker 3: does increase your protection against severe disease compared to the
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  Speaker 3: delta variant that we had last year.
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  Speaker 1: And Bavini does our body sort of build up a
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  Speaker 1: natural immunity after we've had COVID, Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So like so that's really what vaccines are based on.
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  Speaker 3: So when we come into contact with the COVID virus itself,
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  Speaker 3: our immune system gets into action and produces antibodies that
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  Speaker 3: can help our body fight the virus. And so people
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  Speaker 3: who've had COVID will have antibodies, and the vaccine is
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  Speaker 3: a complimentary treatment in addition to the bodies antibodies that
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  Speaker 3: are produced when you actually get sick or right well
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  Speaker 3: we got work together.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. We've had a few questions through from listeners.
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  Speaker 1: One that has come through a couple of times is
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  Speaker 1: the novovax vaccine available in the Northern Territory yet and
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  Speaker 1: who's able to get it?
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  Speaker 3: Great, so that's a fantastic question. So lots of people
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  Speaker 3: have been talking about novavax. The good news is that
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  Speaker 3: novovacs will be available in the territory from next week.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a range of general practitioners, so your local
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  Speaker 3: doctor and pharmacists who will be offering novovaks and people
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  Speaker 3: can jump on the Commonwealth Government website, the Clinic Finder
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  Speaker 3: website or the Northern Territory website and click on a
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  Speaker 3: link and that will show the areas around the territory
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  Speaker 3: where people can get novovaks. Now, the people who are
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  Speaker 3: eligible are those people who haven't yet received the COVID vaccine,
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  Speaker 3: and we know we've got really good rates of vaccination
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  Speaker 3: right across the territory, so this is an additional option
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  Speaker 3: for those people who haven't yet come forward for vaccination.
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  Speaker 3: And it's available for your first and second doses only,
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  Speaker 3: So novavax has not been approved for your third or
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  Speaker 3: booster doses, right.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess that's going to be a bit more
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  Speaker 1: difficult if you are somebody who's in a profession where
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine's been mandated and you need that booster shot.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the booster shot, the preferred booster shot as
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  Speaker 3: per the National Advice is Visor or Maderna brand, and
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  Speaker 3: then if they're not suitable for you, then you can
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  Speaker 3: use the Astrosenika one for the booster. The Therapeutic Goods
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  Speaker 3: Administration is open to reviewing the data around novavax and
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  Speaker 3: it's booster efficacy, and so we've been advised that as
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  Speaker 3: soon as that data is comes through, the TGA will
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  Speaker 3: review that and make a decision.
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  Speaker 1: Bevini, do we know yet if this you know, if
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  Speaker 1: the vaccine is going to be something that we have
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  Speaker 1: to get every year.
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  Speaker 3: Again, that's a really really important question that we're all monitoring.
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  Speaker 3: So we've been living with COVID virus now for just
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  Speaker 3: two years, although it feels like a lot longer, and
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  Speaker 3: so we're really still you know, we're continuing to be
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  Speaker 3: in the learning phase. So at this stage, the advice
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  Speaker 3: is that we need three doses to be up to
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  Speaker 3: date with our COVID vaccination status and the researchers and
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  Speaker 3: the medical community that I'm part of will continue to
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  Speaker 3: monitor what's happening both internationally and locally in Australia and
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  Speaker 3: make appropriate recommendations. So at this stage we're unsure. Like
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  Speaker 3: a lot of things, we just need to keep monitoring
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  Speaker 3: what the virus is doing and make decisions as time
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  Speaker 3: goes on.
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  Speaker 1: Butavini, I know some people listening this morning might be
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  Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, why do I need to get the
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  Speaker 1: booster when clearly COVID is still sort of spreading. What
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  Speaker 1: is the you know, what's the main reason that you
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  Speaker 1: would say that people need to have that booster?
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  Speaker 3: Sure? So, so the the current vaccines that we have
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  Speaker 3: that people have had their dose one and two. What
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  Speaker 3: we've learned since late November when the omicron variant started
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  Speaker 3: traveling around the world is that the current doses two
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  Speaker 3: dose regime isn't as protective as it was against delta
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  Speaker 3: and the other variants. And we know that after three
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  Speaker 3: to four months, the efficacy or the effectiveness of the
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  Speaker 3: vaccine reduces down by about half. And what we also
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  Speaker 3: know from international data and data now coming out of
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  Speaker 3: Victoria and New South Wales where they've had lots of
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  Speaker 3: omicron cases. Is that if you have a third dose,
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  Speaker 3: then you can increase your protection back up to you know,
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  Speaker 3: eighty to ninety percent against hospitalizations. So I was just
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  Speaker 3: looking at some data from Victoria yesterday. If you have
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  Speaker 3: so people in Victoria who had three doses were four
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  Speaker 3: and a half times less likely to go to hospital
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  Speaker 3: than somebody who only had two doses and there were
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  Speaker 3: six times less likely to go to hospital compared to
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  Speaker 3: somebody with no vaccination at all. So the data is
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  Speaker 3: compelling that the third dose gives us the protection up
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  Speaker 3: to up to eighty ninety percent against hospitalizations. Which is
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  Speaker 3: why we're really encouraging everybody if it's been three months
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  Speaker 3: since your second dose, to go and make an appointment
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  Speaker 3: for a booster and you know, at the moment, the
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  Speaker 3: territory again is doing great. We're sitting at around forty
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  Speaker 3: three percent of territorial have had a booster yeap and
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  Speaker 3: there's plenty of appointments, you know, through your pharmacies, your
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  Speaker 3: GPS and the anti or anti vaccination centers or your
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  Speaker 3: aboriginal health center. There's plenty of stock and it'll be
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  Speaker 3: great if we can bring that booster dose number up
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  Speaker 3: into the eighty percent, like we did over the next
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  Speaker 3: sort of four weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Bevini Patel, Associate Professor and lead for the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory COVID vaccine roll out, We appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having a chat with us.