On paper at least, Australia’s coronavirus vaccination programme prioritizes people living in specialist disability and aged care settings in phase 1a, and shortly after people with certain disabilities and health conditions in phase 1b. Although this is laudable, in reality the speed of the vaccine rollout to these groups has been heavily criticized, with delays leading Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler to comment that people living with a disability “are the forgotten Australians in this vaccine rollout”. And the additional concerns that have very recently been raised about the safety of the Astra Zeneca vaccine for certain groups of people, including some people with disability, are likely to exacerbate these delays. This means that people with disability in Australia, some of whom have had to live isolated for over a year, will continue to wait. Read more about this from ABC News.
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