Pharmacy Daily | Back pharmacy to optimise COVAX

GOVERNMENTS around the globe are being urged to take advantage of the public trust in pharmacists to ensure optimal uptake of COVID-19 vaccines (COVAX).

In a statement released last night, World Pharmacy Council (WPC) President, and Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, George Tambassis, said engaging community pharmacists to administer COVAX was a "must".

"In almost all WPC member countries community pharmacies already have a significant and expanding role in administering vaccinations for influenza and other diseases," he said.

"For COVAX that are amenable to administration in primary care settings, community pharmacy must be included as an integral part of each country's national immunisation strategy.

"Involvement of community pharmacy will save lives and accelerate the economic recovery, as the timeframe for reaching target population coverage of the vaccine will be significantly shorter with community pharmacy involvement than without it."

The WPC added that concerns around vaccine hesitancy could be overcome by using the "well-documented high levels of public trust in pharmacists" to promote accurate, evidence-based information through pharmacies.

"Community pharmacists globally are ready to be part of the vaccination effort in 2021, just as they have been an irreplaceable part of continuity of healthcare and pandemic management in 2020," the organisation said.

The WPC's call for pharmacists to be actively involved in the rollout of COVAX campaigns around the world, came ahead of today's National Cabinet meeting, where Federal, State and Territory leaders are set to discuss COVAX rollout plans for Australia.

Meanwhile, CSL has announced plans to proceed to Phase II/III trials with the University of Queensland/CSL COVID-19 candidate vaccine will not go ahead.

The decision was made after blood samples from study participants returned false positive results on a range of HIV assays.

Federal Department of Health Secretary, Professor Brendan Murphy, said evidence from the Phase I data had suggested the vaccine was likely to be successful in protecting against COVID-19, but "the risk to public confidence [in vaccines] was too high".