The speed of Australia‘s vaccination rate is ranked just 90th in the world, as experts warn the coronavirus is mutating faster than the country is administering jabs.
University of New South Wales strategic health policy consultant Adjunct Professor Bill Bowtell said Australia’s rate of cumulative doses per hundred was 2.34.
“We are somewhere about 90th in the world – sandwiched between Bolivia and Albania – now, however you want to spin it we are not doing very well,” he told 3AW on Tuesday morning.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised an end of March target of four million jabs administered, but fewer than a million have been given.
According to data Australia was languishing at the foot of the top 100 countries in the world for the total number of vaccinations administered for hundred people.
By mid-march the population vaccinated in Australia was just at 0.53 per cent.
“There are 97 per cent of Australians this morning who aren‘t vaccinated – this is not going well,” professor Bowtell said.
“In the world, the virus is mutating faster than we in Australia are vaccinating.
“Most of the other countries in the world … have got this through their head that they need to mobilise urgently to get ahead of the variants of the virus that are spreading in the world – It’s a very serious situation.”
It comes as a new coronavirus variant sweeps through Brazil and spreading to other nations around the world.
It is proving to be up to three times more deadly for young people, according to research.
It is also spreading more quickly among younger people, with cases among Brazilians in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are up by 565 per cent, 626 per cent and 525 per cent respectively since the beginning of January, according to Brazilian public health institute Fiocruz.
Professor Bowtell said distribution and supply issues had played a role in the slow rollout.
“We have problems with supply, because of the way in which procurement was organised five or six months ago,” he said.
“And we clearly have problems with distribution … we are not moving fast enough with mass vaccination centres and so on.
“We are falling way behind.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is preparing to give the green light to the trans-Tasman bubble on Tuesday – with Aussies potentially holidaying in the country by the start of next week.
But professor Bowtell said not enough Aussies had been vaccinated in order to allow for international travel.
“The way you work is vaccines first, borders second,” he said.
Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said barely three per cent of adults in Australia were currently vaccinated, compared to 60 per cent of adults in the UK, and 40 per cent in the US.
“We are running way, way behind schedule,” Mr Butler told ABC RN on Tuesday.
However, he agreed that Australia did not have the urgency of countries in the northern hemisphere, which have widespread coronavirus outbreaks.
“Places like the US, the UK, Brazil and many others (are suffering outbreaks) and that‘s why, perhaps, they have been able to achieve those (vaccination) rates,” he said.
Adding to the chaos, health authorities were forced to reiterate the AstraZeneca jab is safe following a rare blood-clotting case in a Melbourne man after receiving the vaccine on March 22.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the rollout would continue, while officials investigating the case.
He said authorities had put the vaccine through rigorous testing before allowing its use across the country.
“If anybody is susceptible [to blood clots], they ought to consult their general practitioner,” Mr Hunt said on Sunday.
“This very considered medical process reaffirms exactly why … Australia sought to have a full, thorough and absolute safety process in assessing the vaccines.
“The course of events reaffirms that this is the right approach.”
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