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Speaker 1: Anti health. He is reporting the death of a male

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Speaker 1: in his thirties from the Greater Darwin region with menager

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Speaker 1: cockle disease. Now, he passed away as I understand it,

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Speaker 1: at the Royal Darwin Hospital and had not traveled into

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Speaker 1: state or overseas recently. And all those close contacts have

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Speaker 1: been identified and the Center for Disease Control is providing

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Speaker 1: information as care and care as it's required. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line to tell us more about the

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Speaker 1: situation is doctor Vicky Kraus. Good morning to you. Vicky.

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Speaker 1: Let me just try that again, Vicki Kraus, Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Vicky.

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Speaker 2: Oh, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Now, VICKI. Do we know how the man contracted menager cockle?

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Speaker 2: No, we don't. If this is a disease that a

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Speaker 2: very rare disease, in any one year, we might have

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Speaker 2: between one and three cases, and especially in recent years

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Speaker 2: when we've been having our mouths covered and been staying

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Speaker 2: apart from each other lectuer disease throughout the whole country.

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Speaker 2: But no we don't. And this is sometimes or the

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Speaker 2: usual occurrence is that it is not related to another case,

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Speaker 2: and you know occurs, but it is a medical emergency

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Speaker 2: when it does happen, so people do have to be

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Speaker 2: aware of it and also have to know that it's

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Speaker 2: a vaccine preventable disease.

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Speaker 1: Now, have we had any further cases, obviously, tragically we

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Speaker 1: have had that death of a man in these thirties.

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Speaker 1: Have we had any further.

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Speaker 2: Cases not since that case, but we did have one

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Speaker 2: case earlier in the year, back towards the beginning of

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Speaker 2: the year, and that was actually in the Alice Springs area,

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Speaker 2: so it was not a linked case.

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Speaker 1: All right, So not linked. Who is the most vulnerable

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Speaker 1: when it comes to this disease vicky.

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Speaker 2: So it's basically three groups. With a group we're most

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Speaker 2: concerned about or about is those under five, and then

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Speaker 2: it's teenagers, so it's those like fourteen to nineteen or

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Speaker 2: even up into the twenty four year olds, so that

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Speaker 2: young adult the teen young adult age group. And then

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Speaker 2: at the other end of life towards you know, the

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Speaker 2: seventies and over also are more at risk. So those

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Speaker 2: are the main age groups that are at risk. And

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Speaker 2: as I've said, this is a vaccine preventable disease, so

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Speaker 2: that's really where the action and has to take place,

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Speaker 2: because when it does occur it often progresses very rapidly

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Speaker 2: and can even within twenty four hours, which is similar

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Speaker 2: to many cases that someone can present and actually be

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Speaker 2: in extremists within a twenty four hour period. So really

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Speaker 2: looking certainly for early signs or symptoms of the disease,

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Speaker 2: but the best prevention is really vaccination.

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Speaker 1: What are those early signs and symptoms, because you know,

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Speaker 1: I know that's myself as a parent, I think, well,

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Speaker 1: I want to make sure that if there is something

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Speaker 1: that I need to be looking out for, I'm aware

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Speaker 1: of what it is.

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Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, And basically meninga cockle disease presents in two ways.

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Speaker 2: It can present as sepsis or like a blood poisoning,

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Speaker 2: or as a meningitis. And so in a sense, unfortunately

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Speaker 2: the symptoms are somewhat vague but need to be paid

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Speaker 2: attention to. And those are of fever. If you're having meningitis,

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Speaker 2: it will be a stiff neck, a bad headache, you

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Speaker 2: don't like to look at lights. You might have vomiting.

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Speaker 2: And there's a very characteristic rash that goes with this,

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Speaker 2: and that's a rash of it's like tiny red and

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Speaker 2: purple spots because they like little bleeds or it can

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Speaker 2: be larger bruises and certainly any indication of that type

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Speaker 2: of rash is really important to seek medical attention and

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Speaker 2: treated as a medical emergency.

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Speaker 1: And vicky, is that is that sort of the telltale

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Speaker 1: sign when it comes to meningingecollcle?

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Speaker 2: Is it that rash that? But yes, but if you

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Speaker 2: have a period of you know, bad headache, fever, stiff neck,

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Speaker 2: not wanting to get lights, that's an indication of meningitis

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Speaker 2: and and people should be seeking medical attention. And with

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Speaker 2: children it's often difficult. They'll have, you know, just not

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Speaker 2: be wanting to do their usual feeds, and they might

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Speaker 2: have vomiting and be more irusable than usual and also

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Speaker 2: turning away from light and sound. So these are things

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Speaker 2: slightly different in the younger age group or in young

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Speaker 2: babies that need to be uh looked into and and

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Speaker 2: to pay attention to to see that you know, whether

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Speaker 2: they're and then to look for a rash as well.

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Speaker 2: But also just those type of presenting symptoms would be

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Speaker 2: to call you doctor or go to a NED.

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Speaker 1: So that is that's the advice as well, that if

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Speaker 1: if you are the situation where where somebody has got

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Speaker 1: all of those symptoms either go to GP or go

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Speaker 1: to emergency.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's right, especially in the young children there. But

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Speaker 2: again I think we want to get onto the vaccinating

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Speaker 2: because this is a very good There are very good

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Speaker 2: vaccines for the types. There are five types of Mininger

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Speaker 2: cockle Mininger coccus it's sometimes called the Meninja cockle bacteria

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Speaker 2: that caused this condition, and we have vaccines against five

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Speaker 2: of them, so that's really very good in the five

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Speaker 2: most commonly presenting. And so babies get their vaccine at

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Speaker 2: one year of age. For acw Y and Aborginal children

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Speaker 2: under two get a vaccine three vaccines under two, but

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Speaker 2: it is recommended for all children under two and that

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Speaker 2: can be asked for and talk two to your vaccine providers.

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Speaker 2: And then when children are as a man that adolescent

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Speaker 2: age fourteen to nineteen, so they're offered the ACWY vaccine

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Speaker 2: through the school programs at fourteen and if they haven't

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Speaker 2: had it at fifteen to nineteen as well. So it

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Speaker 2: is a very safe and very effective vaccine. Way back

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, when the first vaccine of

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Speaker 2: Mininger cockle see came into the schedule, it was given

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Speaker 2: out at a young age and within by. You know,

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Speaker 2: five years ago there was a ninety four ninety five

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Speaker 2: percent reduction and we basically don't seem in ninjacocle see anymore.

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Speaker 2: And now as in the end of the twenty seventeen

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Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, we rolled out the ACWY vaccine and now

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Speaker 2: those numbers in those tereotypes groups are reducing, So that's

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Speaker 2: a very good story.

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Speaker 1: Also, do we know what strain of manager concle the

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Speaker 1: thirty year old had, who do way?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we do know that it was meningjbe and that

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Speaker 2: is the type that we are seeing most in the

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Speaker 2: country and now most in the anti as we've had

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Speaker 2: vaccines for the other types over the years.

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Speaker 1: And so with the meninger cockle bee. Am I right

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Speaker 1: that there was that there is a trial that's happening

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Speaker 1: with meninger cockle bee, but it's not actually covered, is it.

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Speaker 1: If you are somebody who want to take your kids

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Speaker 1: to get vaccinated, it is something that you're going to

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Speaker 1: have to pay in full? Is that correct?

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Speaker 2: That's correct as I said for that, And you do

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Speaker 2: mention that there's a trial going on, and this is

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Speaker 2: a trial that's been that was started last year and

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Speaker 2: it's for teenagers fourteen to nineteen years old. And while

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Speaker 2: we know that meninger cockle vaccine works for Niceria meningitis,

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Speaker 2: which is the bacteria that causes meningitis, it's off. So

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Speaker 2: there's another bacteria called Nyria Gunneria, which causes gunerrea. And

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Speaker 2: there's this trial going on to see the effect of

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Speaker 2: the MENINGERCOCKLEB vaccine both on meningitis and on guner reea.

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Speaker 2: And it's being offered in the anti school from age

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Speaker 2: fourteen to age nineteen. So people and parents have been

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Speaker 2: sent information about that and the students as well, And

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Speaker 2: so I would encourage people to look at that that

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Speaker 2: is one way of getting the vaccine out in that

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Speaker 2: age group, So the fourteen to nineteen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I know again, I know there'll be

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Speaker 1: plenty of parents of little kids listening this morning thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, why is the manager cockle bee not also

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Speaker 1: one that they're able to take the kids to get,

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Speaker 1: you know, as part of I guess as part of

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Speaker 1: those free vaccines. That's obviously a decision that needs to

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Speaker 1: be made on a federal scale, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It is as part of the National Immunization Program. And

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Speaker 2: what is federally funded. So again it's a very rare disease,

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Speaker 2: as I said, maybe one to two to three cases

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Speaker 2: a year in the NT and so it's but it

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Speaker 2: is something that you know, people are looking at and

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Speaker 2: weighing up and exactly this is always on the agenda

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Speaker 2: and being analyzed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we really appreciate your time this morning, doctor

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Speaker 1: Vicki Krass. If there is anybody out there listening this

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Speaker 1: morning who is thinking, you know, they do want to

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Speaker 1: get their family member vaccinated against manager Cocklebee, or if

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Speaker 1: they're concerned that maybe those vaccines aren't up to date,

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Speaker 1: where's the best sort of place that they can follow

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Speaker 1: that up?

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Speaker 2: Do you think well they should just they should talk

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Speaker 2: to their vaccine provider, be that a local GP or

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Speaker 2: their clinical service there that attends and it might be remote,

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Speaker 2: but they will be able to direct them how they

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Speaker 2: can get that vaccine.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, doctor Vicki

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Speaker 1: Krast