Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced Pfizer's groundbreaking    COVID vaccine will be rolled out in Australia from March.  
    "I'm delighted to announce that the government has secured as    part of its agreement with Pfizer, full cold chain logistics,    distribution for the Pfizer vaccine.  
    It's what you call an mRNA vaccine, we have 10m units of that,    part of a 134.8m unit, four-vaccine strategy  We have secured    that for Australia, well ahead of expectations and on schedule,    to deliver vaccines to Australians, commencing in March 2021,"    he said.  
    "That is I think extremely important news. While, again, the    advice is today that we may well have another zero community    transmission case day for Australia, they are still waiting on    two jurisdictions, we nevertheless have to be aware that we    will not be out of this until we have a nation which has had a    full vaccination program."  
    The Therapeutic Goods Administration has given the AstraZeneca    and Pfizer vaccines the green light after "very promising" data    from early clinical trial phases.  
    This puts both developers on track for approval in January and    for Australians to be vaccinated against COVID-19 from March    2021.  
    "It essentially expedites the process and brings critical    medicines, or vaccines, at a faster rate then would otherwise    be the case but with an absolute premium on safety," Mr Hunt    said.  
    The Therapeutic Goods Administration is expected to receive    more clinical information needed to approve the vaccines around    December.  
    The news comes as the Morrison government confirmed it would be    able to distribute Pfizer's world-first messenger ribonucleic    acid (mRNA) type vaccine, which needs to be kept at minus 70C.  
    Very "sophisticated eskies", which require dry ice that lasts    for 14 days, would be used to hold and transport the vaccines,    Therapeutic Goods Administration deputy secretary John Skerritt    said.  
    "(The eskies) can be refilled twice without the need to connect    to electricity," Professor Skerritt said.  
    "These eskies with the two refills gives you a month-and-a-half    of cold chain protection."  
    The distribution process that goes to the National Cabinet on    Friday includes giving vaccines to hospitals, respiratory    clinics and general practices.  
    Professor Skerritt said the eskies would speed up the rollout    of the vaccines because they allowed for multiple distribution    points.  
    However, he said the jabs would not be approved until experts    were confident they met the requirements of efficacy and    safety.  
    WHO WILL GET THE COVID VACCINE:  
    The first batch of Pfizer's successful COVID-19 vaccine will    reach just a fifth of the Australian population, starting with    frontline health workers and the elderly.  
    These five million Australians will receive two doses of the    drug - using all ten million rations the government has secured    - and we can't manufacture more doses here.  
    The roll out of the vaccine, in the first three to six months    of 2021, will also be difficult because it has to be kept at an    extremely low temperature - minus 70 degrees - to remain    stable.  
    There should be just enough doses for the 609,000 practising    frontline health workers including doctors, nurses, dentists,    pharmacists, 3.8 million people aged over 65 and 250,000 aged    care workers.  
    Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Pfizer trial results    were "very promising and I'm optimistic and hopeful next year    about the rollout of those vaccine programs".  
        Like much of the world, Australia's sharemarket responded    positively to the vaccine news.  
    The key S&P/ASX 200 index closed 42 points higher at 6341,    a 0.7 per cent rise for the day, after surging 2.2 per cent in    morning trade.  
    Health Minister Greg Hunt told News Corp Pfizer had committed    to providing the cold chain delivery equipment to distribute    the vaccine in Australia.  
    Experts warn the vaccine won't mean the end of social    distancing, handwashing and mask wearing until almost every    Australian has received it.  
    CSIRO's Director of biosecurity Dr Rob Grenfell said while the    vaccine would prevent people getting sick but it would not    "prevent you getting colonised by the virus".  
    To eliminate the virus entirely, vaccines would have to be    developed to stop the virus in the nasal cavity. The Pfizer    vaccine does not do this.  
    Successful trials by Australia's Doherty Institute of    delivering the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine into the noses of    ferrets have led to a human trial of this method in the UK.  
    "If that develops an immunity at the surface of the nasal cells    and it's demonstrated to have nasal sterility, which is really    the endpoint you're looking for, that would then go a long way    towards decreasing the spread of the virus," Dr Grenfell said.  
    Conventional vaccines use a weakened form of the virus to    prompt an immune response but mRNA vaccines like the one made    by Pfizer use the virus's genetic code to make a person's own    cells produce vaccine antigens and generate immunity.  
    This new age vaccine technology has never been used in humans    before.  
    Nucleus Network's Paul Griffin has trialled a number of mRNA    flu vaccines in humans with no serious side effects.  
    "It's not gene therapy, it is not able to be incorporated into    the host genome so there's absolutely no prospect of altering    human DNA using the vaccine," he said.  
    While Australia's vaccine manufacturer CSL is producing two    other COVID-19 vaccine candidates it does not have the    equipment needed to make Pfizer's mRNA vaccine and we will be    dependent on receiving our supply of the vaccine from overseas    manufacturers.  
    Mr Hunt told News Corp the government was considering over the    longer term setting up an advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing    plant in Australia that could produce this new type of vaccine.  
    While pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and BioNTech announced    clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccine were 90 per cent    effective, the study was yet to be published or peer reviewed.  
    Pfizer said it would produce 50 million doses of its vaccine by    the end of the year and 1.3 billion doses in 2021 but this    would be enough to vaccinate less than one per cent of the    world's population.  
    There are over 200 vaccines in development and more than 40 are    in clinical trials with several key trials due to report this    month.  
    The Australian Government has deals to buy a total of 134    million vaccine doses made by Oxford AstraZeneca, University of    Queensland, Novavax and Pfizer.  
    The Australian sharemarket rise was more subdued than offshore    markets where key share indices in the US, Britain and Europe    soared between 3 and 7 per cent.  
    Among local stocks were some big movers, with Corporate Travel    Management climbing 16 per cent and Flight Centre adding more    than 8 per cent.  
    Investment platform eToro's market analyst, Adam Vettese, said    the vaccine news had "injected optimism into travel stocks in    particular".  
    "However, while this is obviously a positive step forward there    is still a way to go," he said.  
    JBS Financial Strategists CEO Jenny Brown said markets were    forward-looking and buyers were betting on a return to    international travel.  
    "There's a lot of positivity but it has pulled back a bit," she    said.  
    MORE NEWS  
        Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine explained: How it will affect    you  
    Apple's    world-first change revealed  
        Aussie gangsters to be extradited on drug charges  
    Originally published as     The Aussies who will get Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine  
Continued here:
COVID vaccine to be rolled out within months: Hunt - Daily Mercury