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We have an over-supply of political spin in NSW at the moment and a shortage of honest leadership about a pathway out of the Delta outbreak and the mishandling of this year’s HSC is a strong case in point.
By Jackie Pearson
The poor old Class of 2021 and their teachers. They’ve been told they will be heading back to the classroom from August 16 but will they?
Pfizer vaccines have been ‘redirected’ from regions including the Central Coast so mass vaccination of Year 12 students could be carried out at Sydney’s Olympic Park. As the average 17-18 year old would say, “What Tha?”
The messaging around the Sydney Olympic mass vax of 17-18 year olds changed and there appeared to be some thinly veiled finger pointer at a lack of volunteers willing to ride on buses with the Year 12 students who wanted to make the trip to be vaccinated.
Teachers were never asked to accompany students to be vaccinated. Perhaps if teachers had been asked they might have offered more practical solutions.
Vaccinations are carried out in our high schools every year. There are two high schools, one selective and one mainstream, within a block of the Gosford Hospital where Pfizer doses were taken out of the freezer to be ‘redirected’ to Sydney for Year 12 students in the eight local government areas most affected by the Delta outbreak.
This was surely a political decision and a short-sighted one. Central Coast has been included in the Greater Sydney lockdown but not prioritised when it comes to the supply of Pfizer.
Every time the Premier or Chief Medical Officer or Health Minister call for people to get vaccinated as the fastest way out of lockdown they are causing consternation for many. Here’s what happens when you attempt to be a responsible young adult and answer that call. Let’ take the example of someone living, in lockdown, on the Central Coast. Let’s say they are 17, studying for their HSC and still serving drive through at a fast food restaurant as their casual job.
Step 1 – go to COVID vaccine eligibility checker at health.gov.au. Enter your state, age, say no to having your first jab and to being an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Say no to being a quarantine or border force worker or a frontline health worker. Say no to working in disability or aged care. Nor do you work in defence, police, fire, emergency, meat processing or in the manufacture or distribution of COVID vaccines.
Nor are you a person with a disability or pregnant. You don’t have cancer, your immune system is healthy, you don’t have heart, lung or kidney disease, nor do you have a severe mental illness. You are not a carer or supporter of anyone with any of those conditions. You don’t intend to travel overseas.
COMPUTER SAYS NO. You cannot get vaccinated.
The Vaccination eligibility tracker gives you the following message –
Based on the information you gave us, it looks like you are not a part of the current phase.
At this time only the Pfizer vaccine is approved for people aged 16 and 17, so you must receive a vaccine from a state-based clinic.
Each state and territory is working out how to provide the correct vaccine to eligible 16 and 17 year olds.
That’s funny, I thought it was only a couple of days ago the Chief Medical Officer was declaring that 16 and 17 year olds could consider AstraZeneca with the advice of their GP.
Step 2 – go to health.nsw.gov.au and see what you can find out about Pfizer being made available from a state-based clinic. Funnily enough, apart from information about Super Sunday, free AstraZeneca vaccines at Sydney Olympic Park, the NSW Health COVID page sends you back to the Federal Health eligibility tracker. So what happened to the Pfizer that was taken out of the freezer at Gosford Hospital to be put into the arms of HSC students? Not sure!
Get vaccinated! Please get vaccinated. Vaccination is our passport out of lockdown. Well folks, it is not as easy as it looks. Try different combinations and scenarios for yourself. Of course, don’t book appointments if you are lucky enough to find one but have a try, if you haven’t already.
In fact, here’s an idea. Can every politician currently telling the public to get vaccinated please go online and find out what’s actually involved in answering the vaccination call.
Here’s another idea. Put Year 12 and their teachers out of their misery. Cancel the HSC. Give them estimates. Tell the universities to do their own assessments of eligibility. A distinct absence of international students for the foreseeable future should mean our tertiary institutions are able to accommodate most candidates for undergraduate studies. Surely.
And please, someone, start telling the truth about the vaccination supply situation. Let’s divide NSW into local government areas. Then let’s publicise on either NSW Health or the Commonwealth Health website exactly how many AstraZeneca and Pfizer and any other vaccines will be available in each local government area each month until February, which is when, at current rates of vaccination, we might reach the 70 per cent target.
My understanding is that GPs on the Central Coast who are participating in the AZ rollout are only getting hands full of doses per week. Then there are the vaccination hubs at local hospitals and the occasional evangelical church. Appointments are available for AZ but not Pfizer.
At least if we suspend the agony over the HSC we have one less group of NSW residents out on the street trying to access vaccinations that are not available. At least if we are honest about the rate at which the vaccines are available we can give people a greater understanding of the importance of staying home, wearing a mask, socially distancing etc. Then, when the vaccine supply issue is resolved, let’s set up a mass vaccination centre (or several) in each of those Local Government Areas and get the job done.
No spin, no obfuscation, no mixed messages, no blame game.
