AWARD Winning local General Practitioner (GP) Ashlea Broomfield told News Of The Area that the community should not be concerned about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine as Australia is in a favourable position having been able to learn from the lessons of Europe.

“We saw what happened in Europe and that led us to be able to act proactively with COVID-19,” she said.

“And now with the vaccine we are seeing this being given to tens of millions of people and can see what has happened.

“In Australia we have the benefit of learning from other countries and their programmes and can see how we can assess the data to determine what can be the safest rollout for our patients.

“And we are keeping up to date with all of that data so it is really important to keep discussing with your GP if you have any concerns.”

Dr Broomfield said GPs, who are known and trusted, will be crucial to gaining community support and discussing case by case patient factors.

However Dr Broomfield admits that there are some challenges ahead with community concerns.

“There has been some hesitancy of the speed around the rollouts of the vaccination but because it was such an infectious disease there has been a huge amount of resources thrown at the vaccination research,” she said.

The widespread nature and media exposure given to the vaccine also resulted in a higher number of volunteers for the trial than usual.

“Thousands of people volunteered for the trials and the higher number of study participants has meant that for each medication and intervention testing they have had a wider group of people which is best.”

She continued, “Previous studies for infectious diseases have had to get participants onboard over a longer period of time.

“So we can be confident that the provisional approval of the Pfizer vaccine from the Therapeutics Goods Administration is based on rigorous trials and data.”

Currently she said GPs are being called upon to express interest to the local Primary Health in participating in the COVID-19 Vaccination rollout as part of the COVID-19 Vaccination Road Map.

“For GPs out there keep up to date with information from the TGA, the Australian Technical Advisory Group and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

“And for the government it is vital that GPs get financial and infrastructure support for the rollout,” she said.

 

By Sandra MOON