Talk:COVID-19 vaccination in Australia/Archive 1

Archive 1

flags

Is there any good reason we are using:

• {{ListFlag|Flag of the Australian Capital Territory.svg|28px}}[[Australian Capital Territory]], rendering as Australian Capital Territory

rather than the rather simpler, shorter:

• {{flag|Australian Capital Territory}}, rendering as Australian Capital Territory
  

in the table in the Vaccination rollout by states and territory section?
The only diff I can see is the flag is a little smaller done the second way. 220 of ^ßorg 04:51, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

@220 of Borg: I've just removed the flags anyways since they violate MOS:FLAGRELEVANCE - this article has nothing to do with the actual regionality of Australia, so I don't believe sub-national flags should be used. I may be wrong though, so feel free to revert and change it to {{Flag}}. ItsPugle (please ping on reply) 04:54, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

@ItsPugle: No, I thought that they were misplaced was likely too. They just looked messy IMHO. Too many flags used, too many flag templates too IMHO, again.
The 'ListFlag' version isn't used much, <200? the other, over 550,000! 220 of ^ßorg 05:07, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

Figures in vaccine graphs

What do you think about matching the figures in the vaccine graphs to this source? -> https://covidlive.com.au/report/daily-vaccinations/aus HelperAnt (talk) 13:32, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Hi, I tried my best to match the data with “covidlive.com.au” but some times the data changed as per the new updates from State or commonwealth. Jaswinder1122 (talk) 17:05, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Second doses

Also do you think some of the doses included in the totals are second doses and do you think any sources are distinguishing them as first/second doses? HelperAnt (talk) 01:33, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

I know people who have received their second dose; I believe they are included in the totals. I have only seen second dose figures for Victoria [1] Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:03, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Comparing the Commonwealth figures for Victoria with the above, we can see that second doses have indeed been included. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:59, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

I have contacted the creator of covidlive about the issue of second dose figures. I was informed that @healthgovau is not providing/ publishing the data correctly. Once the statistics get updated on the website, I will do the same. Jaswinder1122 (talk) 17:11, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

I also think this, "8% of the Australian population has received at least one dose" doesn't seem to be correct because it seems to be calculated on the population and all doses given some of which would be second doses but not sure what can be done with that unless/until we know how many doses are first/second doses. HelperAnt (talk) 10:16, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

You are right; these figures are the commutative doses, but we can't distinguish between first and second doses figures as no official data available. I hope that the department of health will be going to provide all figures in future.Jaswinder1122 (talk) 05:47, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

The Cumulative vaccinations in Australia graph is wrong; the first doses line is including second doses, which may account for up to a quarter of the total. Of 212,357 doses administered in Victoria, 163,604 were first doses and 48,753 were second doses. I suggest relabelling the graph or omitting it entirely until data becomes available. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:13, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

@Hawkeye7: thanks for the suggestion;

Resolved

 – change has been made in the article as per suggestion Jaswinder1122 (talk) 05:30, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Possible death from vaccine

Source less than an hour old. Death of a 48 y.o. diabetic NSW woman is under investigation, so just putting this source here for future reference. The vaccine used is not named.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/authorities-investigate-death-woman-blood-clots-covid-vaccine/100073018.

It doesn't seem to be one of the previously mentioned cases of adverse reaction /blood clotting. 220 of ^ßorg 09:53, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Misleading percentages

I noted this: "* 32% of the Australian population has received at least one dose.

• 11% of the Australian population has received both doses

"

The population of Australia is somewhere around 25,790,595 so the sentence "11% of the Australian population has received both doses." is wrong. 2,180,544/25,790,595 = 8.45%. I don't think they should exaggerate and give people a false sense of security with these numbers, but it is actually incorrect statement to say 11% of the population has been vaccinated when they haven't.

Hi, Did you check the side note for the percentage. It seems like you missed that. If you check that, it’s clearly mentioned that the Percentage count is only 16+ population only who is eligible for the vaccination program. I think it will clear your issue. Jaswinder1122 (talk) 15:27, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Eligible population query

My understanding is that currently only persons ages 16 and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in Australia. Granted that the TGA has approved the (Pfizer) vaccine is safe for 12 to 15-year-olds; it is still pending ATAGI decision of if, how and when those children aged 12-15 should get the vaccine.[2] Currently (27-July), all of the Australian Department of Health publications still use 16+ population as the eligible population; which they number to be 20,619,959 persons for reporting purposes. I'm curious where exactly the 23,576,914 number came from as the calculation for 12+ and why it is being used? Unless I missed something on ATAGI now including 12-15s as eligible? Aeonx (talk) 11:08, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Aeonx:, As you know, TGA already approves it for 12 to 15 years children and The National COVID-19 Vaccines Taskforce has been undertaking detailed planning to support the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine for children, following approval from the TGA and in line with the expert medical advice from ATAGI. Moreover, I think it's a more suitable metric with the TGA approval of 12+ and for international comparisons with the US or UK. The figure of the population(12+) is calculated from the excel sheet which can be downloaded from the ABS official website[3]. Please feel free to change the population stat if you think it's too early to consider 12+ Children in the eligible population. Jaswinder1122 (talk) 06:42, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

I think the abs population data is an appropriate and suitable source, however I'm not of the understanding that TGA approval = eligibility. I think there is a step following TGA approved whereby ATAGI (or other authorised medical professionals) determine suitability and eligibility, which I don't think has happened just yet. I think it would be best to use the 20,619,959 number which the health.gov.au publications use as the eligible population until either a clear eligibility is made by ATAGI or the health department publications are updated, whichever happens first. I think it will happen soon based on this: [4] Aeonx (talk) 07:25, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

@Aeonx:, I'm agreed with you there is still confusion in approval and eligibility. The threshold is to be determined by the modelling at Doherty Institute. I think we will up to release of threshold percentage, and it will also clear which portion of the population will be under eligible population. Jaswinder1122 (talk) 10:21, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

@Aeonx:, eligible population figures are reverted back to 16+ age, as Today PM clears the eligible population for the threshold for phase progression[5]. If you have any queries, feel to contact me Lucifer Jatt (talk) 09:33, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

Address undue weight to adverse vaccine reactions

Firstly, I note that other similar WP articles, COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 vaccination in the United States, and COVID-19 vaccination in Canada; have no or very little content regarding adverse events following immunisation. Secondly, I note that media reporting on AZ AEFIs (in particular) have been substantial and has affected the rollout of vaccines in Australia. I've used these two points to try to create more balance in the article to address the undue weight tag, and I wanted to get editor opinions on how to improve the article further to address this tag. Aeonx (talk) 05:24, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I had also previously flagged this on the main page for Covid Australia. Thanks for your efforts. I would take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject COVID-19/Tips and WP:MEDRS and ensure any media commentary sources are highly reliable to warrant inclusion. I think a good start would be that the specific details of individual people who have had vaccine reactions are WP:UNDUE weight in my opinion. The pages for Australia are the only COVID-related country pages I have come across to mention reactions to this level of detail. Arcahaeoindris (talk) 15:28, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Went ahead and removed that entire section. Perhaps also move some information on hesitancy and messaging from Covid Australia#Vaccination as it belongs here rather than there.Arcahaeoindris (talk) 15:33, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

@Arcahaeoindris, I think for completeness the article does need to capture the fact there have been at least 6 deaths (officially now 7) which are attributed to vaccination and some details around the timing and impact of these deaths relevant to vaccination in Australia, which I why I attempted (fairly poorly) to create a more consolidated and summarised version of the section you removed. These deaths have played a significant part in both vaccine hesitancy and in the confidence of the AZ vaccine, and the events have played a part in the changing advice from ATAGI. I'm not sure just removing it all is the way to go, I'd be much more comfortable with a more concise summarised edit. Aeonx (talk) 23:18, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

@Aeonx: Absolutely worth mentioning yes, but the level of detail that was there (ages, locations and circumstances of each incident) was definitely WP:UNDUE and WP:TOOMUCH detail. As you say, there is no other country vaccination page that does this. If there are reliable sources for it, the section could summarise how the small number of incidents contributed to vaccine hesitancy in the country or changing policies or just provide an overview.Arcahaeoindris (talk) 08:45, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

I've restored some of the content from your [[WP:BOLD}] deletion, but as you suggest I've removed much of the location and circumstances information from each incident. I've left the ages, as I think that is relevant to the changes that were made to the AZ rollout (firstly to over 50s, then to over 60s), and it helps to provide context of the observed linked deaths relative to ages. Aeonx (talk) 03:33, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

@Arcahaeoindris: @Aeonx:, First of all, thanks to both for your contribution to this wiki page. In my opinion, hiding or publishing adverse events on this page does not create hesitancy among people about vaccines. As every case is already documented on the TGA website on weekly safety reports and all over media channels. we can limit the data of events to avoid lengthy page.Lucifer Jatt (talk) 05:08, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Agreed. After some more trimming today, the section on adverse events is ~350 words long, compared to the version two weeks ago before I started editing it: [6], which was ~1160 words long. So it's been trimmed to about 30%. Aeonx (talk) 02:35, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

@Shibbolethink, you previously made an edit on this section, do you have suggestions for improvements? Aeonx (talk) 02:38, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Pfizer vaccine swap deal with UK, Singapore too?

Attn: Lucifer Jatt
Hadn't heard about this but it's at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-05/pfizer-shipment-from-uk-vaccine-swap/100435676.

"Australia has received its first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from a major swap deal with the UK, with a flight carrying more than 150,000 doses touching down in Sydney.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced the deal would add 4 million Pfizer doses to Australia's supplies, doubling the nation's Pfizer supply this month.

The first flight from London was carrying 164,970 doses while the second, carrying 295,500 doses, was due to arrive later this evening.

Key points:

• Two flights carrying almost 450,000 Pfizer doses in total arrive this evening (5 Sept '21)
• They are the first shipments from the vaccine deal with the UK and will double Australia's supply of Pfizer doses this month
• Federal health authorities say it will bolster the national rollout"

Also

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-03/covid-19-vaccine-swap-pfizer-four-million-doses-from-uk/100431828
• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-31/pfizer-doses-availability-australia-singapore-covid-19/100421462

Regards, 220 of ^ßorg 10:54, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

@220 of Borg: Yeah I heard all this in news and over social media last week. BTW thanks for sharing the imformation. Lucifer Jatt (talk) 12:09, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Lucifer Jatt You're welcome. Just though I'd leave it to you to add here if needed. I'm just at the start of updating COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales for today (7 September). 220 of ^ßorg 12:21, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Keen for the ultimate 'Super Graph', and happy to be the daily data-mule to feed it too -

I'm brand new here on Wikipedia, and have recently taken over the daily data-muling duties, specifically for the "Cases and Deaths by Age Group and Gender" Table and Graphs, over on Statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia page.

I've been keen to create a new graph that displays the specific daily vaccination uptake, plotted against the daily hospitalisation rate, against the daily ICU admission rate, against the daily death rate. Simillar in style as to any of the other graphs currently on this page, but one that would allow a solid line of each parameter to be plotted in clear view of each other parameter, showing an immediate realisation of trends, the very moment they begin to become evident.

I'm confident that data displayed in this manner, should enable readers to quickly grasp exactly what impact vaccination is having - or perhaps even should be having - to the case numbers.

It'd also be grand to have a graph of these parameters for each state, along with a graph showing the national figures, and I'm stuntman keen to be the data-mule to bring all of these numbers to each of the graphs each day.

With the data displayed in this format, it would become immediately clear as to what impact lock-downs have on daily case numbers, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths, while at the same time - specifically the impact vaccination uptake is also having on the same statistics. Being able to visualise each of these parameters as a solid line, plotted directly against each other on the same horizontal axis, I am certain would reveal in an instant, exactly what is happening here in Australia.

My suggestion to add this graph over on the Statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia page, was meet with the suggestion to try a request for such a graph over here instead.

Any thoughts to my desire for such a graph would be very much appreciated -

--WPsuperfan (talk) 00:23, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

@WPsuperfan: thanks for showing your interest in COVID-19 vaccination in Australia. Yes, you can add a graph to Statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia or add it on this page. It's up to you. Infect this graph create more awareness about the benefits of having a jab. Lucifer Jatt (talk) 06:27, 10 September 2021 (UTC)