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The first generation of Covid-19 vaccines launched in Australia in 2021 are unlikely to prevent transmission of the virus, making high levels of continuous testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine crucial, a review commissioned. by the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences have found.
The academy is made up of more than 400 high-level researchers and the review outlines the steps for Australia’s pandemic response in the new year. It was written by the director of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases, Professor Tania Sorrell, and the University of Queensland immunologist, Professor Ian Frazer.
“Announcements of interim vaccine trial results are promising, but even a 90% effective vaccine in reducing disease will take time to manufacture, distribute and administer, and may have limited impact on SARS-CoV-2. [Covid-19] transmission and spread, or protection, can be short-lived, ”the review says.
“Therefore, Australia’s comprehensive public health measures and Covid-19 management approach will remain crucial to the ongoing response.”
Data from phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine to date show that the vaccines slow or prevent the vaccinated person from developing the disease, but not if they prevent the vaccinated person from transmitting the virus to others. It is unlikely that it will be known whether the vaccines also stop transmission until they are applied to the general population.
That’s why ongoing monitoring of those who are vaccinated will be critical, Sorrell and Frazer write, saying that national control of the pandemic will depend on “sustained and enhanced support for research and innovation to continue to provide the knowledge and tools. necessary to face the pandemic – even when the number of cases is low ”.
“Furthermore, current trials will not detect rare side effects, those that occur in the longer term or those associated with specific population groups, because they do not involve enough participants. Such data will only be available after several months. The academy supports the position of the US Food and Drug Administration, which has said that issuing an emergency use authorization for a vaccine requires monitoring of data from at least half of the trial participants. phase 3 for at least two months after vaccination and that additional data from the trial [is] to be provided beyond this period. “
Frazer said the vaccines will require “an enormous effort” to manufacture, transport, store and manage across the country. “And that is going to take a long time, most likely, in 2021,” he said. “If we lower our guard before that, the virus will escape us again.”
The review states that lockdowns in response to outbreaks should be “a measure of last resort.” Managing the impacts of the pandemic on mental health will be crucial, says the review, as “the pandemic has generated feelings of anxiety and distress in the general population.”
“There is already evidence that more people develop mental health problems for the first time, higher relapse rates in those with prior mental illnesses and, for some, an exacerbation of their existing mental illness,” the authors wrote.
“We are also seeing delays in seeking or obtaining care for other conditions such as stroke, myocardial infarction, cancer, and acute surgical conditions, some of which are urgent, and there is evidence that delays in presenting these conditions have an impact. impact on morbidity and mortality “.
Sorrell, who chaired the report, said: “From any global point of view, the Australian approach has been a spectacular success.”
“But this has come at a significant cost and, as the second wave in Victoria showed, success can be very fragile.”
