Coronavirus Vaccine

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (16:37): Thank you, Mr President, and may I congratulate you on your ascension. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Yesterday, the federal government announced a $1.7 billion deal to receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, rolling it out in early 2021, to quote the government, 'should it pass late stage testing'. The vaccine, known as AZD1222, is now in stage 3 testing. It is so far unproven and there have been question marks over side effects in phase 1, including high fever from some of the participants.

The federal health minister also said the government would provide the manufacturers of the vaccine, which would also include Australia's CSL, an indemnity in the event of subsequent side effects; in other words, people who suffer any side effects would be unable to sue. This is unheard of in Australia, although the US government has for many years provided indemnities. Imagine if this was done with thalidomide in the early sixties.

I support vaccination and I hope this vaccine works. As members know, I'm also part of a locally made vaccine trial, which has shown no side effects with early positive signs. My question to the health minister is: is the state government comfortable to support and approve the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in South Australia under those indemnity conditions?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (16:39): I thank the honourable member for his question. If I might take an opportunity to make a side reference, because the honourable member did in this explanation, he referred to the vaccine project which he is an honourable participant in. I just want recognise the fact that earlier this month the commonwealth announced funding for five COVID research projects, totalling a $4.1 million investment. Vaxine Pty Ltd was a recipient of one of those grants, so that is great to see a South Australian team of researchers receiving commonwealth support for their work.

In relation to the Oxford work, obviously that's not an Australian venture. I do appreciate that the commonwealth has not only done at least two rounds of funding for Australian-based initiatives for vaccine development but also has taken an active procurement approach. To me that is responsible; we just don't know which of these vaccines will be successful. As the honourable member has highlighted, they have a long way to go. There is a very methodical process to assess the benefits and the risks of any vaccine.

We saw in the worldwide reaction to the Russian announcement that they were rolling out vaccines the high level of concern amongst both public health experts and world leaders at the prospect of what I would say is a premature rollout of a vaccine. I am very confident that the commonwealth government of Australia, consistent with its comments about the safety of vaccines, will ensure that any vaccine that it facilitates the distribution of will be safe for users.

In relation to the indemnity, I will seek advice on that. I am not sure of the nature of the indemnity. I presume there's a range of different approaches that can be taken, whether or not it's the commonwealth that takes responsibility to pay for any liability that might be owing or whether it's, as the honourable member's question suggests, an indemnity such that the person who experiences side-effects has no recourse. I will seek further advice on that. I would be very confident that the commonwealth government will respect the well-developed patterns for the approval of vaccines and that any rollout will be done respecting the rights of people who participate.