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“Can it be done? If so, how can it be done? “Andrews said.” It’s very important that we don’t just advertise. We need to have a detailed plan before we go down that path. “
Earlier this week, Victorian doctors and pharmacists joined forces to push for free flu vaccination for all Australians to help curb the rise in overcrowded hospitals and shake up vaccine fatigue which may be contributing to a large increase in influenza infections.
The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, warned that the flu could be “quite unpleasant” in young children. He said people had been concerned about COVID-19 vaccines and perhaps the flu would not have been expected to pose such a major problem so quickly.
“We were worried because we have a mostly naive flu population after two years of isolation, so we have to keep moving.”
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Last week, The Age revealed that a growing number of Victorians were ill with nasty flu attacks, leaving them prostrate for up to 10 days. Hospitalizations and intensive care admissions for the disease have also increased.
This week, the Queensland government announced that all residents will be offered a free vaccine before the end of June, warning of a “severe outbreak” of influenza A, a more serious strain of the virus. NSW will begin offering free flu shots to all residents next week.
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Omar Khorshid, said a free flu vaccination for all Australians was a good idea and should be considered by the Albanian government.
However, he said complacency could be more of a problem than a cost, and politicians had to make sure the community understood that the country was facing a major health crisis in which people could not always access the attention when I needed it.
The Victorian President of the Australian Pharmacy Guild, Anthony Tassone, said he supported the push for free flu vaccines, but that it was up to the state government to “study any measures to help encourage and increase the adoption of flu shot “.
On Tuesday night, Royal Children’s Hospital said its emergency department was on capacity for the third time in less than a month, with doctors and nurses facing a 500% increase in cases of flu.
With Aisha Dow and Timna Jacks
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