Australia live news: Australian vaccine trials abandoned due to HIV false positives

Australia had ordered 51m doses of the UQ/CSL vaccine. Follow latest updates

9.30pm GMT

Morrison says that while it’s disappointing to not continue the CSL/UQ trial, it’s not a setback in terms of the Australian government’s ability to get everyone vaccinated.

I think what this demonstrates is the effectiveness of our strategy. And what we can do is vaccinate our population twice over. And we have one of the highest ratios of availability of doses of any country in the world. So this isa demonstration of the success of the vaccination policy and approach that we have been following. We have prepared for this. We have planned for this. And now we’re making decisions in accordance with this. And so I think this does demonstrate both the science that we have available in Australia, but also the manufacturing capability.

CSL is a leading manufacturer in the world. The minister and I have both visited the facility there, and I want to thank everyone down at the plant there because they’re going to be busy, they’re going to be producing those vaccines. As the minister said, the net outtake of this is we are more likely to have the entire population vaccinated earlier rather than later by the ability to bring this manufacturing capability forward. The process for manufacturing the molecular clamp vaccine are actually more complicated than it is for AstraZeneca. So this is basically adding on to the existing run, as opposed to a completely different manufacturing process. So that puts us in, I think, a strong position.

So we’re pretty confident that an issue like this is unlikely to happen because we’ve got the Phase 3 data.

The Novavax platform is very different [to UQ]. It doesn’t use the same molecular clamp — it uses a different approach. There’s no reason why we would expect the same thing. And they’ve published their Phase 1 studies, and they haven’t realised any of these sort of issues…

9.22pm GMT

Morrison said that today’s announcement should increase confidence in the vaccine process, because it shows that governments are willing to abandon the development of a vaccine that does not pass its tests.

I think today, and the decisions we’ve taken, should give Australians great assurance that we are proceeding carefully, we are moving swiftly, but not with any undue haste here. At the end of the day, the Therapeutic Goods Administration – like with any vaccine in Australia – must have their tick-off. Without the tick, there’s no jab when it comes to vaccines in this country.

We’ve all had vaccinations at various times in our lives. I have. My children have. And we take those vaccines in great confidence of the system that we have here in Australia. What you’re seeing here is the system at work, protecting Australians, and making good decisions in the public health interest. So that’s why we were so keen to keep Australians up to date here this morning – so you know where we’re at. But the truth is, we’re on track. The system’s working as it should. And Australians are protected, as always.

Continue reading…Australia had ordered 51m doses of the UQ/CSL vaccine. Follow latest updatesFollow our global coronavirus live blog Full Australian Covid stats; restrictions state by stateDownload the free Guardian app to get the most important news notifications 9.30pm GMTMorrison says that while it’s disappointing to not continue the CSL/UQ trial, it’s not a setback in terms of the Australian government’s ability to get everyone vaccinated.I think what this demonstrates is the effectiveness of our strategy. And what we can do is vaccinate our population twice over. And we have one of the highest ratios of availability of doses of any country in the world. So this isa demonstration of the success of the vaccination policy and approach that we have been following. We have prepared for this. We have planned for this. And now we’re making decisions in accordance with this. And so I think this does demonstrate both the science that we have available in Australia, but also the manufacturing capability. CSL is a leading manufacturer in the world. The minister and I have both visited the facility there, and I want to thank everyone down at the plant there because they’re going to be busy, they’re going to be producing those vaccines. As the minister said, the net outtake of this is we are more likely to have the entire population vaccinated earlier rather than later by the ability to bring this manufacturing capability forward. The process for manufacturing the molecular clamp vaccine are actually more complicated than it is for AstraZeneca. So this is basically adding on to the existing run, as opposed to a completely different manufacturing process. So that puts us in, I think, a strong position.So we’re pretty confident that an issue like this is unlikely to happen because we’ve got the Phase 3 data. The Novavax platform is very different [to UQ]. It doesn’t use the same molecular clamp — it uses a different approach. There’s no reason why we would expect the same thing. And they’ve published their Phase 1 studies, and they haven’t realised any of these sort of issues… 9.22pm GMTMorrison said that today’s announcement should increase confidence in the vaccine process, because it shows that governments are willing to abandon the development of a vaccine that does not pass its tests. I think today, and the decisions we’ve taken, should give Australians great assurance that we are proceeding carefully, we are moving swiftly, but not with any undue haste here. At the end of the day, the Therapeutic Goods Administration – like with any vaccine in Australia – must have their tick-off. Without the tick, there’s no jab when it comes to vaccines in this country.We’ve all had vaccinations at various times in our lives. I have. My children have. And we take those vaccines in great confidence of the system that we have here in Australia. What you’re seeing here is the system at work, protecting Australians, and making good decisions in the public health interest. So that’s why we were so keen to keep Australians up to date here this morning – so you know where we’re at. But the truth is, we’re on track. The system’s working as it should. And Australians are protected, as always. Continue reading…