The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has given provisional approval for the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, known as Spikevax (elasomeran) in Australia. It will join AstraZeneca and Pfizer as available options for people who wish to get the jab.
The announcement was made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday evening during an afternoon briefing.
“This means we have an additional 25 million doses of Moderna to add to the 125 million Pfizer doses and 53 million AstraZeneca doses we’ve already started rolling out,” Morrison said.
“We will have 10 million of the Moderna doses arriving before the end of this year. The first one million doses are on track to arrive next month and will go to pharmacies. Then we will have three million in October, three million in November, and three million in December.”
According to Morrison, 10 million doses of Moderna have been ordered to arrive this year. One million will arrive in September, and will be handed out to pharmacies as first priority. Alongside this, 3 million doses will arrive every single month from the beginning of October until the end of the year.
Morrison ensured Aussies that jabs will be put in arms as soon as September, which is pretty bloody excellent.
“This is our plan to ensure that we get Australia to where we need to get to this year. We have more Pfizer. We have more AstraZeneca. Now, we have Moderna. We have more doctors. We have more nurses. We have more pharmacists,” he said.
“We have more jabs in arms and now 10 million Moderna to add this year, with more than 1.3 million vaccines doses delivered in just one week, that is almost the population of the City of Adelaide.”
Moderna, much like the other two, is administered over two doses. Each dose is four weeks apart, whereas Pfizer has a three-week gap.
And just in case you forgot: this is the vaccine that was funded with $1m by Dolly Parton herself, so you just know that it’s blessed.
The TGA has given the vaccine provisional approval, which is given when “a new medicine is a promising treatment for a serious or life-threatening condition.”
“Australians can be confident that the TGA’s review process of Spikevax (elasomeran) was rigorous. The decision to provisionally approve the vaccine was also informed by expert advice from the Advisory Committee on Vaccines (ACV), an independent committee with expertise in scientific, medical and clinical fields including consumer representation,” the TGA said in a statement.
“The TGA will continue to actively monitor the safety of Spikevax (elasomeran) and will not hesitate to take action if safety concerns are identified.”
According to Gladys Berejiklian, NSW as a whole needs to reach 6 million vaccinations if we ever want to look at easing the current restrictions.
Morrison mentioned this statistic in his presser also.
“The whole country on average has to get to 70% and then that state itself has to get into 70%. What the premier is referring to is how New South Wales might seek to manage their suppression phase measures of restrictions in that phase. That is what she is referring to,” he said.
See you at the AZ, Pfizer or Moderna lines, friends.
More to come.
All adult Aussies (yep, even if those of us under 40) are currently able to get the safe and effective AstraZeneca vaccine through a GP. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor to see if it’s right for you.
Alternatively, you can triple-check to see if you’re eligible for the Pfizer vaccine here.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
