WITH Victoria now in its sixth COVID-19-induced lockdown, Collingwood Football Club's US ruckman, Mason Cox, has asked why pharmacists haven't been playing a greater role in Australia's vaccination campaign.
"In the USA for months now - MONTHS - people can walk into a chemist and get a [COVID-19] vaccine," he said in a tweet yesterday.
"No restrictions or questions asked.
"How is a first world country so far behind the rest of the world?
"I see friends and family [in the US] back to normal and we haven't budged in the last year."
Responding to the tweet, Collingwood supporter and Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, said "you're right Mason, pharmacists should have been part of the COVID vaccine (COVAX) rollout much earlier".
"FYI we do ask some questions just to make sure everything's okay," Tassone added.
Former Pharmaceutical Society of Australia CEO, Shane Jackson, also replied to Cox's tweet, noting COVAX was "not the only thing pharmacists in other countries can do that we can't do in Australia", highlighting restrictions on the profession's capacity to substitute medications during supply shortages.
"If I've a stock shortage of one strength of a medicine do you know I can't give you the equivalent in another strength - apparently maths isn't a pharmacist's strong suit," Jackson said.
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