The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
TRANSCRIPT
27 October 2021
INTERVIEW WITH JIM WILSON
2GB DRIVE
E&OE…
Topics: Booster shots, rapid antigen tests; quarantine policy for tennis players
JIM WILSON:
Big news today for those of you who are fully vaccinated. Booster shots are on the horizon. The TGA has provisionally approved to Pfizer booster, and this third dose will be available six months after your second dose. So depending on when you got the jab, that could be coming up soon.
Now it will be available to you regardless of whether you got Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Moderna as your first two doses.
Health Minister Greg Hunt joins me live on the line for more. Minister, welcome back to Drive.
GREG HUNT:
It’s a pleasure. And good afternoon, Jim.
JIM WILSON:
Pfizer has been approved for booster shots for Australian adults. When will they begin, and how can people get them?
GREG HUNT:
So November 8 is the provisional time. We have one more step, and that’s what’s called the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is just completing their final advice.
But assuming that supports what the medical regulator or the Therapeutic Goods Administration has said, November 8, it would be when we begin that.
And that’s for people who are six months plus from their time of the second vaccination. And that should be between now and the end of the year, a little over 1.6 million Australians who would become eligible.
JIM WILSON:
So how strongly, Minister, do you recommend my listeners get the third jab, get the booster shot?
GREG HUNT:
Very strongly. It is called a booster and that’s precisely because what it does is it lifts your immune response, and therefore your protection in relation to COVID-19. And we will be one of the most highly vaccinated societies in the world, one of the most recently vaccinated societies.
But after Israel, we’ll also be one of the first nations in the world to have commenced a full whole of country vaccination with booster program. So it means, above all else, being as well protected as anybody in the world.
JIM WILSON:
So is it a one-off third jab, or will booster shots be needed every six months?
GREG HUNT:
So that is a question where the global science hasn’t been settled. It’s what the Prime Minister and myself have asked. And at this stage, there’s a third dose. The world is looking at the impact.
What is beginning to emerge is some signs that the longevity of a third dose is better than we may have anticipated.
But the truth of it is, what do we know? The third dose is safe, it’s effective, it boosts. What do we not know yet? And that’s where we will need annual doses after that.
And I think it’s very important to be clear as to where the global science is, but what’s still to be determined.
JIM WILSON:
Okay. So when it comes to being considered fully vaccinated, will we get to a point where you’ll need to have had the three doses of the vaccine?
GREG HUNT:
So at this point, all our advice is that you will be regarded as fully vaccinated having had the two doses. That was reaffirmed to me today by Professor Paul Kelly, the Chief Medical Officer of Australia. But as with all of the scientific and health and medical developments in COVID, we review.
And we get the benefit of seeing what happens with immunity in some of those countries that had the emergency vaccination programme to begin with.
We’re in the fortunate position of being highly vaccinated, of being recently vaccinated, and then having the booster program. So along with Israel, we’ll be in that most protected category.
JIM WILSON:
Okay. So the TGA has provisionally approved a Pfizer booster. What, for example, those people have had, including myself, and you’re in the same boat as well, Minister. We’ve both had AstraZeneca, okay, our first two doses.
Do we stick with AstraZeneca for the booster, or do we have to go to Pfizer?
GREG HUNT:
So Pfizer is recommended as the universal booster. So if you think of it as a universal adapter in phone or electricity terms, it’s a universal booster.
And so it’s approved for- as a booster for Pfizer, Moderna, or for AstraZeneca. We do know that Moderna is also going to put in a booster application. And very few people, in fact, nobody in Australia, would have passed the six months since their second dose with Moderna.
And so that would that will be done well in advance of people reaching that six months. And then we are likely to receive an application from Novavax over the course of the coming weeks.
That’s a vaccine that hasn’t been in Australia, but some will know it. It’s a protein vaccine. And we’ll wait for that to be determined, but it is also a very, very promising vaccine.
And we’d encourage everybody to come forward and be vaccinated if they haven’t been. But we do know that there are some people that have said I’m only going to be vaccinated with Novavax.
I would want them to come forward now. The fact that Novavax is coming, I think will be heartening to a small number of people around the country that have been focused on that.
JIM WILSON:
Just clarifying, do you expect AstraZeneca to make a formal application?
GREG HUNT:
We’ve been raising it with them. We don’t have an answer on that. But if they do, we’re prepared. The TGA is in a position to assess and to offer that.
JIM WILSON:
But you’ll have plenty for supplies of Pfizer if, for example, those who have been double dosed with AstraZeneca have to go Pfizer as their booster shot.
GREG HUNT:
Yes, so we ordered 40 million Pfizer this year, and then we have another 60 million Pfizer next year, and then another 25 million a year after.
So all up, 125 million Pfizer, which is enough for every Australian, five times over.
JIM WILSON:
Okay, so it’s only for people over 18 at the moment, but kids over 12 are able to be vaccinated now. Will they get boosters at some point as well?
GREG HUNT:
Again, that’s one that will be determined and assessed. If you are 12 plus and immunocompromised, you would qualify now for a booster. And those boosters are being offered 30 days after your second dose.
Be it people who are severely immunocompromised, the science has evolved where it’s determined that that third dose is actually part of your primary course. So immunocompromised and 12-plus, general population, 18-plus.
And again, Pfizer will consider around the world and then submit in Australia if they have the evidence to recommend a booster for 12 to 18-year-olds.
JIM WILSON:
We’re speaking to the Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt. Minister, what about kids aged between 5 and 11? Two weeks ago, the TGA told Pfizer it could apply for vaccine approval for that age group. What’s the latest on that front?
GREG HUNT:
So Pfizer has submitted the first, but not the last, of its data, and the TGA will just work through that. In America, in the last 24 hours, an advisory committee to their medical regulator, it’s called the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, has recommended that Pfizer be given to 5 to 11-year-olds. A different dosing size, but the same formula.
But that’s not an approval by the regulator itself. So, we’re encouraging, I’ve written to, I’ve spoken to the CEO of Pfizer Australia, Anne Harris. She’s driving her team, and they’ve begun that process, but they haven’t completed that process.
And essentially, you need Pfizer to approve, or to submit, the TGA to approve, and then our advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, or ATAGI, to put in a recommendation.
But, we’re very careful. We’re working very quickly but methodically in terms of kids. And if it’s approved, we’ve got the vaccines available.
JIM WILSON:
Okay. I want to ask you about rapid antigen tests. They’ll soon be available to buy in supermarkets, which is great. But in the UK, for instance, Minister, they’re free, paid by the government.
So why aren’t you putting these on Medicare for Australians?
GREG HUNT:
Look, the medical advice is, at this stage, that we’ll have a very, that we’re focusing on aged care and the potential to support in other critical needs environments.
We’ve been providing through the National Medical Stockpile in the aged care facilities. But also, the view is that this is not a diagnostic test. It’s a screening test.
And so therefore, we’ll have a pretty strong private market, widespread distribution. I think nine tests approved for home testing at the moment, over 30 tests for medical supervision.
And so, that’s the medical advice, drawing the distinction between a screening test and a higher resolution or accuracy PCR test, which is the one we all know, those that have had them, the nasal swab. Ouch. I had a recent one.
And those are, so that remains the primary test. So this is an additional screening, and that’s the recommendation.
JIM WILSON:
Just had a call from someone. Just going back to the booster shots. And the caller asked they were ineligible for the Pfizer vaccine because of a heart condition.
So what booster will they get, Minister?
GREG HUNT:
So there will then be options. Again, the mRNA, or Moderna, is applying, and then also the AstraZeneca. ATAGI’s advice on the immunocompromised was that the AstraZeneca, if you were- if you didn’t have access to or you weren’t able to, for some reason, take Pfizer, was that AstraZeneca was a perfectly suitable third dose under those circumstances.
JIM WILSON:
Okay. Quick one before I let you go. Daniel Andrews has shut the door on unvaccinated tennis players competing at the Australian Open in January.
I mean, you’re the Federal Health Minister and you’re also very proud Victorian. Do you agree with Daniel Andrews’ decision?
GREG HUNT:
Look, entirely a matter for him.
From our perspective, we have two responsibilities. One, to bring Australians home. And from the 1st of November, double vaccinated Australians will be able to come home without quarantining. And then, to make sure we’re doing our best to protect Australians, that’s the other critical thing.
And as a general principle, we’re not bringing unvaccinated people into Australia. And if they do come, they have to quarantine.
If a state, for a critical work or event purposes, as has happened right throughout the pandemic, wants to bring somebody in who’s unvaccinated, that’s a matter for them. We would provide an exemption, as we did for this year’s Australian Open run by Victoria.
But if they want to run a no jab, no play policy, that’s entirely their call. If they want to have a person who’s unvaccinated but has two weeks hotel quarantine, so long as they have the two weeks hotel quarantine, then we’d facilitate that.
JIM WILSON:
Minister, thank you for time this afternoon.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks Jim, and thanks everybody. Just, you know, look at New South Wales. I mean, I just want to say, what a job. As of today, 93.3 per cent first dose. Just an incredible achievement.
JIM WILSON:
Closing it on 90 per cent fully dosed. We’ve done the heavy lifting and led from the front. And the people in this city and around the state, Minister, have really rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job.
GREG HUNT:
Literally rolled up their sleeves, and they’ve protected themselves and the nation. Thanks, Jim.
JIM WILSON:
Good on you. Thanks for your time, Minister. That’s Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt.
-ENDS-