Good morning everybody, it's Dr Nick and James here for
today's Top 3.
And as you know if you're hearing the Top 3 with me, that
must mean it's a Friday. So I wish you all a wonderful weekend
and a safe weekend, hopefully with your family. And for
those of you who are working I hope it's not too difficult
for you.
My shout out today is to everyone involved in the COVID-19
vaccine rollout. You know, this is one of the largest
logistical exercises that Australia has ever undertaken,
we need to ensure a level of cooperation that's not been
seen before, between federal, state, health departments,
between general practices, between our nursing staff at
hospitals, and you, the community.
It's going to go as smoothly as we can possibly make it,
but there will be hiccups along the way.
We have already seen that the vaccine program may extend
into 2022 in order to vaccinate all our population, our
Health Secretary, Brendan Murphy, said that yesterday
during the parliamentary inquiry. And that's because, of
course, the AstraZeneca vaccine, the one that I received
two days ago, takes 12 weeks to go through the course.
So for those in the second phases of our vaccination campaign,
phase 2a and particularly phase 2b, if you get your vaccine
towards the end of the year then the second vaccine may occur
in 2022.
The important thing to remember there, about the AstraZeneca
vaccine is that it induces protective antibodies, in 94% of
people within one week of vaccination. So once you get that
first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine, you are protected.
Then the second vaccine in the AstraZeneca regime, is to give
you the durability of protection over long period of time.
Just going back on that personal note, I received that
AstraZeneca vaccine, I'm feeling great today. I was a little
fatigued yesterday, and I had a headache on the first
night after the vaccine, and some people do get side effects
like that. I took some Panadol, recovered perfectly well, and
I'm feeling great today.
First question.Should I still be using the COVIDSafe app once I have been
vaccinated?
Now, particularly in the early phases of our rollout of the
vaccine, before a large number of Australians have been
vaccinated, COVID-19 vaccination is not a substitute for
COVID-19 safe behaviour.
The vaccine at the moment is supplementing other public health
rules and guidelines, at the moment we still need to remember
