COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy plays out at Canberra medical practices
Canberra's general practitioners are seeing the effects of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, with roughly a third of patients booked in to get the jab at one clinic cancelling their appointments.
My Medical Practice Charnwood director Shravan Bolli said more than 500 people had been booked in at the clinic to get the AstraZeneca vaccine. Of them, at least 30 per cent had called up to cancel.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommend early in April that people under 50 get the Pfizer vaccine over the AstraZeneca vaccine, because of concerns of a link to extremely rare blood clotting.
"People need to take [getting vaccinated] more seriously," Mr Bolli said.
"I think the government needs to reassure the patients or the public a lot more. I'm from India and my heart aches for everyone there. They don't have resources and we have resources and we're not using them."
Mr Bolli said the patients who had cancelled were a mix of people both under 50 and over 50, because many older people had said they would get a Pfizer jab.
There is currently no mechanism for members of the general public aged over 50 to get the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine.
My Medical Practice Charnwood can administer up to 400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine each week, Mr Bolli said, so there were plenty of appointments available in the coming weeks.
Australian Medical Association ACT president Dr Antonio Di Dio said he knew of at least three GPs in the territory that had AstraZeneca vaccine appointments available in the next week or so. He said people who rang their GPs a fortnight ago were told they would not get an appointment until June.
Dr Di Dio said some of those appointments had become available because people had cancelled, but the bulk of the appointments at those three GPs had come online as more vaccine supply had become available.
"The majority of people are turning up their appointments, which is great," Dr Di Dio said.
"But they are getting people who are hesitant, who are changing their mind, and a small number of people who have cancelled their appointments and would like to wait for more information to come along."
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7233356/30-per-cent-have-cancelled-vaccine-hesitancy-plays-out-at-gps/?cs=14225
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