Neville' message 

Last week's speaker drew a good audience with about 18 attending our Zoom meeting. We had a great speaker in Mohamed Mohideen who is the Manager of Engagements & Partnerships in the Covid 19 response. Fortunately, another one of those attending was Spencer Fowles Steen who is the Editor of the North West City News and he kindly took notes for us. So based on those notes I can advise you that some of the issues that Mohamed mentioned were as follows:

Mohamed has a long history with Rotary in Sri Lanka as a past president of a Rotaract Club in Sri Lanka. To give you an idea about covid, we tend to take it or granted. People in Australia assume it’s the same as the normal flu. In extreme cases, people develop pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. We have more microorganisms that body cells. It’s crucial to wear a mask. Generally, the virus takes 2 to 14 days of incubation, and during this period, they’re highly infectious. Can be asymptomatic at the time of testing. People can come out of quarantine and test positive.

There are over 208 million cases. Many people don’t consider covid to be serious. One of the key things, when we talk about vaccines, is that vaccines aren’t going to stop you from spreading covid, so it’s important you practice covid-safe measures. Using hand sanitizers, QR codes, getting tested, isolating at home. The vaccine and testing are all free to anyone in Australia, be it a citizen, temporary visa holder or even a guest - the vaccine is free. For people of refugee status as well.

Two key vaccines: AstraZeneca (AZ) and Pfizer. We know vaccination programs are effective. If you look at the number of people vaccinated in Australia, 4.8 billion doses are administered worldwide.

There are 11 different strains of covid, and more will come. If you think of the flue, every year we get new stains and vaccines carry effectiveness against strains. Both vaccines are effective against delta strain.

Vaccine side effects: Generally mild, and on average, last two to three days. Some people have no side effects so people shouldn’t be worried if they have no side effects. One of the key things of concern, it’s very rare, is anaphylaxis. 4.7 per million doses for Pfizer, 1 per million doses for AZ.

Key problems: demand was greater than supply. Initially, they rolled it out first for vulnerable people. Apart from the two vaccines, we’ve purchased Novavax and Moderna vaccines. Moderna by end of Sept.

There are over 50 sites you can book appointments. GPs and GP respiratory clinics are also supplying vaccines. GPs are supporting by the Federal Government. The data that comes out on a daily basis, that figure is taken from vaccination clinics run by the state government, it doesn’t include vaccination hubs run by the Federal Government.

In the last few weeks, AZ has been offered to 18-39. ATAGI is advising that children ages 12-15 years be vaccinated using Pfizer.

Sainab will present her thoughts and message to members at the meeting tomorrow.

 

Across two hours, Jeanette will cover ideas about interviewing a subject, and how to enrich the great Rotary stories that we want to write. Please have a pad and pen handy for some great tips and tricks to better tell your story.

Between Thursday 9 September 2021 5:30 PM and Tuesday 14 September 2021 5:30 PM

Bookings at: https://www.trybooking.com/BTPWX

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