COVID-19 Vaccine May Not Protect From Transmitting Disease: Paul Kelly

Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly during a press conference in the Prime Ministers Courtyard at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 24, 2020. Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Australia’s health officials have found that taking a COVID-19 vaccine may not protect people from transmitting the disease. The new finding comes as a third-person experienced an allergic reaction to Pfizer’s mRNA jab as it’s rolled out in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

On Wednesday, Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly warned that overseas returnees may still be treated as infectious and have to undergo mandatory quarantining even after taking a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine.

During a press conference addressing Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy, Kelly said whether someone is free from quarantining depends on factors such as; where they’ve come from; what vaccine they’ve had, if they have had two doses and when that occurred.

“Unfortunately, the vaccines that we know most about don’t appear to demonstrate any protection from transmission of the virus,” he said.

He added, “They are very effective at stopping the disease from the virus in an individual person, but it may well be that that transmission might continue. So we need to really think that through very carefully.”

Dr. Paul Sheikewitz receives the third Pfizer vaccine shot, becoming the first doctor in Orange County to get one, at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Health Care Worker Suffers Allergic Reaction to Pfizer Vaccine

A health care worker from Alaska became the latest to experience an allergic reaction from taking the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine on Wednesday following two incidents in Britain last week.

According to a report from the New York Times on Dec. 16, the middle-aged woman, who had no history of allergies, had an anaphylactic reaction within 10 minutes of taking the mRNA jab.

She was admitted to the emergency department of Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital where she is currently stable after being administered an epinephrine drip.

The UK, Canada, and the United States have granted emergency authority for the distribution of Pfizer’s vaccine in response to rising death rates due to the CCP virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease.

However, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said that because Australia’s situation is not so severe, Australia would undertake a thorough safety assessment before rolling out the vaccine next year.

An interim analysis of the AstraZeneca vaccine trials published in the Lancet Journal showed that efficacy was as low as 3.8 percent on asymptomatic users.

The Australian government has agreements with four COVID-19 vaccine makers—which are Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novavax, and COVAX. According to the government’s health website, all of these are likely to require two doses. They are still under trial phases in Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a national strategy to roll out the vaccine is being finalised, and that he hopes to start distribution by March.

“But the details of that plan are still being worked out,” he said.

Similar to other countries, Australia will prioritise frontline workers and those in “critical occupations” as well as the vulnerable for the vaccination.