Reignite Democracy Australia October 25, 2021 4:02 pm
Your six months is up’: Daniel Andrews hints boosters will be needed to keep fully vaccinated freedoms
Victorians may soon be required to get a third booster shot or lose their fully vaccinated freedoms, with a message warning them before their “six months is up”.
Victorians may soon be required to get a third Covid-19 booster shot or lose their fully vaccinated freedoms.
Daniel Andrews suggested on Sunday that going forward, life for the vaccinated would “be about the maintenance of your vaccination status”.
The Victorian Premier made the comments ahead of a meeting of the medical regulator on Monday that could see third doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine offered to the general public as early as the end of next week.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the federal government’s vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), are considering booster shots for everyone six months after their second dose.
If boosters get the thumbs up, it would make Australia only the second country after Israel to roll out booster shots to its whole population.
Israel announced earlier this month that booster shots would now be required to be considered fully vaccinated, saying it would soon cancel the vaccination passports – known as the Green Pass – of more than a million people who were eligible for, but had not yet received, their third dose.
Mr Hunt last week refused to rule out a scenario where Australians would be required to be “up-to-date” with their boosters for the purposes of vaccine passports.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Health Minister was asked whether “you ever imagine a situation where the passports that we have now, [and] are going to have for travel, will include needing to be up-to-date with your booster shot”.
“Sure. Look, [we] will follow medical advice on that and I won’t speculate on passports,” Mr Hunt said.