The first 10-million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to Australia by the end of this year. An additional 15-million shots will arrive in 2022.
Health Minister Greg Hunt says they'll be held in reserve in case there are supply chain issues with the Pfizer or AstraZeneca jabs already being given. Additionally, he says they could serve as booster shots or be used in response to COVID-19 variants. The Moderna vaccine needs to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration before it can be used in Australia.
"We don't know everything that will occur with this pandemic. But our goal has been to prepare for everything that is possible. And that has been our mantra since we signed into being the declaration of a disease of human pandemic potential," clarifies Hunt.
Labor's Health Spokesman Mark Butler wants the government to explain why the deal with Australia has taken so long.
"If the rest of the world struck deals with Moderna, why do Australians have to wait until the end of this year? What happened with Scott Morrison's promise that Australians were at the front of the vaccine queue?"says Butler.
Highlights
- The Moderna vaccine is already being used in the United States, Canada, Britain, the European Union, Korea, Japan and Israel.
- Moderna is an m-R-N-A vaccine, Australia doesn't currently have the capacity to manufacture such jabs.
- Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy says m-R-N-A jabs could be manufactured in Australia by next year. The m-R-N-A vaccine technology is likely to be much broader than COVID vaccine.
