According to the Australian media 9NEWS News Network on December 10, together with the elderly, pregnant women, medical staff and chronic obesity patients, prisoners and correctional personnel in prison will become the first people in Australia to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
Because the country’s health department believes that prisoners have weaker immunity than most ordinary people.
A spokesman for the Australian Health Department of Health said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday (9th) that “the priority population is determined by medical experts, and the prison inmates and correctional personnel are also listed as priority groups, which is in line with the guidance given by the World Health Organization.”
In response, 9NEWS News launched a discussion on Twitter, asking whether the public supported it.
A considerable number of Australian netizens disagreed outward, because in this way, “what is the significance of the trial” and “Australia always does better protect prisoners than to protect law-abiding citizens”.
Some Australian netizens seem to be more concerned about whether vaccination is compulsory or voluntary than whether vaccination is given priority or not.
Therefore, some netizens suggested that instead of treating prisoners as “experimental mice”, it is better to continue to recruit volunteers.
For obese people, they are also listed as the priority group, and some netizens think it is incredible, because netizens believe that if you want obese people to produce antibodies, they use more vaccine doses than ordinary people.
Coincidentally, Massachusetts also identified prisoners in prison as the priority vaccinated against the novel coronavirus this week.
Earlier, the American Medical Association made a similar appeal to the society.
While such an approach may not be popular with the public, the state’s decision follows the advice of medical experts, “prisoners are living in a collective life, and the virus is easy to spread rapidly among them,” sheriff Nick Koch of Hampshire County, the county seat of Midwest Massachusetts, told local media.
It is also understood that earlier on December 10, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a meeting with media reporters that the start of vaccination may be earlier than originally scheduled for March next year. The country’s health minister Greg Hunt said last week that the first batch of vaccines are expected to be approved in late January next year.
However, there is no consensus within the government on the relevant plan.
Morrison revealed that Australia will increase its procurement of vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Novarox Pharmaceuticals: the former will increase from 33.8 million to 53.8 million, while the latter will increase from 40 million to 51 million.
In addition, the coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by the University of Queensland and CSL Pharmaceutical Company in Australia has been excluded from the purchase list.
The reason is that a volunteer tested falsely positive for HIV after being vaccinated against them. This is related to the fact that researchers used a protein fragment of HIV when designing the vaccine. Morrison said that the termination of the procurement agreement was aimed at dispelling public doubts, and Australia would still have enough vaccines to guarantee universal vaccination.
