13th November 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
The TGA is examining data from Pfizer on the BNT162b2 vaccination in children between 5-11 years old as I write this article. The US FDA have already approved the vaccine for use in children of those age groups and the US CDC has recommended that children 5-11 years receive the vaccine.…
10th October 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
Updated 17th October 2021
You would have caught a bit of the announcement that some people may be due a Covid-19 vaccine booster. As usual, the announcement is not precise or detailed enough and now everyone is confused whether they are the intended target group for the booster. It is not a call to boosters for most vaccinated people.…
23rd September 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
You have to agree that the covid-19 vaccines have been pretty effective in reducing the case numbers of covid-19 worldwide. However, over the last few months, with the emergence of the delta variant, there have been resurgence of the virus. Is it because delta variant is more contagious? Perhaps, the efficacy of the vaccines has waned as it’s coming up to 6 months for those who had their vaccines earlier in the year.…
26th August 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
The Delta variant, first identified in India in December 2020, spread rapidly throughout a mostly unvaccinated country and caused massive numbers of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths. It’s now responsible for the outbreaks spreading across the world. This includes countries that have high vaccination rates. In the UK, the Delta variant has spread rapidly.…
8th August 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
We know that the incidence of thrombocytopaenic thrombosis syndrome (TTS) can occur with the AstraZeneca (AZ) Covid-19 vaccines although it is pretty uncommon. What do you do with patients who had TTS with the first jab and it’s now ready for the next jab? Obviously, they can’t have the second jab with AZ.…
23rd July 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
It’s all too confusing. And annoying. They keep releasing updates in the lay media and says “see your GP to discuss” but did not update us. You will recall that 2 weeks ago the recommendations to have the second AstraZeneca vaccination moved to 6 weeks after the first vaccination in areas with the outbreak which is pretty much all of Sydney.…
13th April 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
Every time the government overpromise and underdeliver, we are the ones that have to deal with the public whose expectations have been led unnecessarily high for political reasons. With the issue of clots relating to the AZ vaccine on the front page over the last week or so, patients are now utterly confused and look to their GP for advice as to where and when to proceed.…
5th April 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
Last week we explored the association of thromboembolism following vaccination with AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine. This adverse event was first reported in two patients in Austria which is then followed by more reports in Germany and the rest of Europe. One man in Victoria was recently reported to have similar adverse effects following the AZ vaccine.…
27th March 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
It all started when the Austrian regulatory authority suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine on March 9th after a patient was diagnosed with multiple thrombosis and died 10 days after vaccination, and another was hospitalised with pulmonary embolism after being vaccinated. At least 16 other countries follow suit and suspended the use of AZ vaccine.…
13th February 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
As often occurs with new medications and vaccines, pregnant individuals were excluded from the clinical trials for these vaccines. As the vaccine roll out begins, women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant will want to discuss the safety of the vaccines with their GP. We better be up to date with the relevant issues so that we can have a meaningful discussion with our patient.…
29th January 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
I know we have touched on this vaccine before when we discussed Covid-19 vaccine candidates. We briefly discussed the interim results then but since we are likely to get the AstraZeneca/Oxford (AZO) vaccine in the national vaccine roll-out in primary care, there will be many questions coming from our patients in the coming weeks.…
24th January 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
PERSONAL OPINION
Is it deliberate that we are given 10 days lead time to submit an expression of interest (EOI) to participate in the national Covid-19 vaccine Phase 1b roll-out? 18 pages of information released on a Friday afternoon in the hope that we might skim over the details and sign up without reading the fine print?…