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Speaker 1: I'm not sure about you, but it does seem like

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Speaker 1: every second person has a cold or some kind of

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Speaker 1: virus at the moment.

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Speaker 2: You can probably hear it in my voice. And I'm

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Speaker 2: not just.

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Speaker 1: Talking about COVID. I know I've been fighting alergi for

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Speaker 1: a little while. Half the kids in the soccer team

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Speaker 1: have been off sick last week. There certainly seems to

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Speaker 1: be plenty of bugs getting around last week. We did,

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Speaker 1: indeed hear from the Center for Disease Control that there

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Speaker 1: are a high number of the flu or high numbers

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the flu around the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Right now, and joining me on the line is the

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Speaker 1: CEO of the Palmerston super Clinic, Robin Karl.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Robin.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. How you going?

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Speaker 1: Oh, not too bad. I've been fighting a bit of

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Speaker 1: a cold for a while. Robin, I reckon half the

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Speaker 1: territory is at the moment, I.

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Speaker 3: Think you could be right there.

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Speaker 1: Are you seeing a lot of people come in presenting

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Speaker 1: with cold or flu symptoms? How are things going at

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Speaker 1: the moment?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, We're definitely seeing a significant increase in the cold

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Speaker 3: and flu symptoms and probably about sixty percent of the

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Speaker 3: people who are coming through our registry clinic are testing

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Speaker 3: positive for influenza A. Wow, so massive, massive increase in

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Speaker 3: diagnosis and prevalence of influenza A in the community.

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Speaker 2: Goodness made, Robin. What are the symptoms?

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Speaker 1: Because I know that you know, for a lot of

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Speaker 1: us you sort of go, do I have a cold?

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Speaker 1: Do I have influenza? But influenza is you feel it

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Speaker 1: a lot more, don't you.

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Speaker 3: So influenza IS he typically presents as you start to

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Speaker 3: feel a little bit off, then fevers, apes, chills, pains,

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Speaker 3: some people can develop a cough that's quite significant, and vomiting,

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Speaker 3: sometimes a bit of diarrhea. So obviously symptoms that are

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Speaker 3: quite similar to COVID, certainly in the early days, So people,

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Speaker 3: I think, what's happening? People are getting those symptoms, doing

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Speaker 3: their rat tests at home and finding that they're negative

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Speaker 3: for COVID, but are so feeling unwell that they think

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Speaker 3: they need to see someone, so then they're booking into

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Speaker 3: the respiratory clinic. We obviously do the assessment and the

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Speaker 3: tests for COVID, but we also do a full respiratory

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Speaker 3: screen as well, and we're finding that the majority of

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Speaker 3: these people are now testing positive for influenza as well.

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Speaker 2: There you go.

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Speaker 1: I'm listening to those symptoms, Robin and thinking, is that

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Speaker 1: what both my children have right now?

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Speaker 3: It's quite possibly because it's been children. As we know,

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Speaker 3: and as we've learned over the last six months, certainly

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Speaker 3: since the onset of omicron, children do love to spread

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Speaker 3: the love. They are a great source of viral infection

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Speaker 3: in the community because it's very very difficult, particularly very

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Speaker 3: small children, to try to get them to stop being

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Speaker 3: children and hugging and kissing and spending time with each other. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3: that's quite possible that that's what they've got.

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Speaker 1: Oh. Look, they're wonderful kids, but they are pretty gross.

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Speaker 1: They certainly share every germ that they've got with everybody

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Speaker 1: around them. Rob walk us through with that percentage you

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Speaker 1: said about sixty percent of people that are presenting a

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Speaker 1: testing positive to influenza A.

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Speaker 3: That's correct.

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Speaker 2: Yes, are they quite.

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Speaker 1: Large numbers comparatively to what you've seen in previous years.

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Speaker 3: Almost definitely. I think in the past we'll certainly pre COVID,

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Speaker 3: if we had maybe a half a dozen positive confirmed

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Speaker 3: influenza cases that came through our clinic, we would think

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Speaker 3: that that was quite high. Statistics that we've got from

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Speaker 3: the Health Department in the recent couple of days has

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Speaker 3: indicated that from March till the beginning of May we've

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Speaker 3: had three hundred confirmed influenza cases in the Northern territory

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Speaker 3: compared to seventy six for the entire twenty twenty one period.

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Speaker 1: Goodness me, so they're large numbers. Rob and I know

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Speaker 1: that New South Wales is the latest state to offer

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Speaker 1: residents a free flu jab ahead of the cooler months,

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Speaker 1: as the health authorities there begin to worry about already

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Speaker 1: spy in cases.

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Speaker 2: Do you think that that's a path.

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Speaker 1: That we need to go down in the territory or

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Speaker 1: are we finding that quite a high volume of people

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Speaker 1: are already going to get their flu vaccine.

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Speaker 3: Well, what we've found is that the people coming into

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Speaker 3: their flu jabs is about half of what we would

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Speaker 3: have expected to see pre COVID. So I think the

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Speaker 3: element of vaccine fatigue has kicked in. Also some confusion

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Speaker 3: for some people who think, oh, I've been vaccinated against COVID,

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Speaker 3: so I'm good, I don't have to worry about anything else,

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Speaker 3: which is not the case. That actually quite different viral route.

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Speaker 3: I think that the government probably does need to think

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Speaker 3: about it, because what we're seeing in other states' territories

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Speaker 3: is the hospital systems are under enormous pressure, more pressure

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Speaker 3: than they were at the height of COVID because people

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Speaker 3: have just stopped taking care of themselves. They've stopped hand sanitizing,

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Speaker 3: they've stopped respecting social distancing, They've gone, oh, I don't

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Speaker 3: have COVID. So even though I'm not feeling all that light,

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Speaker 3: still go to work. And we're just seeing this massive

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Speaker 3: spread of influenza. Bearing in mind that we've had two

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Speaker 3: years really of no influence influenza in the community, so

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Speaker 3: we've really almost back to square one in some respects

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Speaker 3: of people's immunity levels in order to combat the infection

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Speaker 3: when they are exposed to it, which is why I

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Speaker 3: think we're seeing people become really quite unwell very quickly

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Speaker 3: when they're exposed to the influenza virus.

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Speaker 2: Will there you go?

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Speaker 1: Now? So who actually who should come in and get

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Speaker 1: their fluvacs or their influenza vaccine?

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Speaker 3: Is it?

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Speaker 2: Everybody?

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Speaker 3: Everyone? Everyone, everyone needs to come and have it. So

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Speaker 3: the National Humanization Program, which is run by the Fedral government,

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Speaker 3: has always offered free vaccines to those highly vulnerable groups

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Speaker 3: of people, and in the territory and across the country,

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Speaker 3: any aboriginal entarisia island of people over six months are

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Speaker 3: able to access that. It cost children between the ages

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Speaker 3: of six months and five years, because again that's the

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Speaker 3: group that loves to spread the love, and it's also

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Speaker 3: a high risk for children to get influenza that it

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Speaker 3: actually can end up hospitalized because they can deteriorate quite quickly.

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Speaker 3: So parents who've had children who've had those exposures would

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Speaker 3: understand and know that pregnant women, people over the age

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Speaker 3: of sixty five, and then people over the age of

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Speaker 3: six months who have specific medical peditions are able to

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Speaker 3: get that vaccine for free. So there's a very large

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Speaker 3: group of people irrespective of whether the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 3: decides to offer a free fluvacs to everybody who are

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Speaker 3: able to access a flu vaccine at no cost now

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Speaker 3: and for those who currently have to pay, it's not

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Speaker 3: a significant cost. It ranges between about fifteen and twenty

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Speaker 3: dollars to be able to have that vaccine done.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was what I thought.

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Speaker 1: It's not an expensive one to go and get and

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Speaker 1: by the sounds of it, if you are somebody that's

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Speaker 1: on the pension, it sounds like you're probably eligible for

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Speaker 1: a free vaccine, so.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully would be definitely Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Robin, I know that there are probably some people listening

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Speaker 1: this morning who are thinking, oh, I do think I

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Speaker 1: want to go and get the flu vacs, but I'm

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Speaker 1: already a little bit crook?

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Speaker 2: Do you not go and get it? If you're crook?

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Speaker 3: We recommend that if you're not feeling well, that you

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Speaker 3: first clear that you haven't got influenza. The last thing

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Speaker 3: you want to do is be out and about and

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Speaker 3: feeling dreadful and have influenza and be spreading it. So certainly,

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Speaker 3: anyone who's not feeling well, if they're not able to

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Speaker 3: get into their regular GP, they can certainly look to

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Speaker 3: get to the rest of your clinic booking online there. Otherwise,

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Speaker 3: if you're feeling a little bit off, it could be

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Speaker 3: for lots and lots of reasons, it's worthwhile having a

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Speaker 3: chat with your GP just to see if you can

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Speaker 3: go ahead and have that vaccine now, or have a

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Speaker 3: chat with the local pharmacist and see what they recommend. Preferably,

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Speaker 3: get the vaccine before you start to feel unwell. Well.

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Speaker 1: I tell you wash, it's going to be an interesting

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Speaker 1: a few months if people don't go and get that

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Speaker 1: flu vaccine, because by the sounds of Verge that those numbers,

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Speaker 1: we're expecting that they're probably going to be quite high

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Speaker 1: around the territory.

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Speaker 2: I'm totally surprised to hear that.

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Speaker 1: You know that you've got sixty percent of people have

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Speaker 1: come in who are maybe thinking they've got COVID or

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Speaker 1: something else, but have actually got influenza. It seems quite high.

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Speaker 3: And it will. It is high, and it's something we

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Speaker 3: were fearful of, but we're hoping we wouldn't see. And

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Speaker 3: of course the other thing is that you can actually

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Speaker 3: have COVID and influenza at the same time. So we

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Speaker 3: have actually had a couple of patients who've tested positive

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Speaker 3: to both COVID and influenza and they have been very unwell.

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Speaker 3: And that's not something that you want to experience. So

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Speaker 3: basic rules that people have been following for the last

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Speaker 3: two years. Wash your hand, ye hand sanitized. If you're

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Speaker 3: not feeling well, please stay at home, don't go to work,

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Speaker 3: or wear a mask. I know that it's not some

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Speaker 3: thing as a community, we've all been all that comfortable doing,

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Speaker 3: but we've had to do it from time to time,

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Speaker 3: and really it's one of the best ways to protect

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Speaker 3: each other to stop the spread of those viral infections.

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Speaker 3: So even if we can get people to start doing

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Speaker 3: those things, I think we'll see a reduction in the

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Speaker 3: spread of the influenza violence.

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Speaker 1: Now, if you do think you've got influenza Robin, do

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Speaker 1: you need to go in and get a test?

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Speaker 3: We don't need to. It just depends on how unwell

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Speaker 3: you are. Most people will find that it'll run its

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Speaker 3: course relatively quickly, so we're talking a few days. But

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Speaker 3: for some people there's a risk that it can develop

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Speaker 3: into something far more severe. I've had anecdotal evidence from

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Speaker 3: people who have been in that quite young twenty to

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Speaker 3: thirty age group have found themselves hospitalized because of an

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Speaker 3: influenza infection. So I think we do need to be

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Speaker 3: very cautious. If you're not well and you're not sure, absolutely,

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Speaker 3: I think it's worthwhile seeing local GP to make sure

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Speaker 3: that there's nothing else going on. And if you do

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Speaker 3: need some intervention to help break that cycle of that

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Speaker 3: infection and help get you through it, then that's what

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Speaker 3: you should be doing.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin Carl, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully everybody goes out and gets their flu vax or

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Speaker 1: you know it looks after themselves and certainly you know,

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Speaker 1: washing the hands and following that good hygiene so that

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Speaker 1: we don't all end up sick.

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Speaker 3: Most definitely, and I think we learned the lesson in COVID.

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Speaker 3: It's a lesson that we should just keep following. We

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Speaker 3: saw we pretty much eradicated influenza from our community in

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Speaker 3: Australia over the last two years. We can do it again,

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Speaker 3: very very simple. Yeah, wash your hands, stay at home

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Speaker 3: if you're not well, don't feel like you have to

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Speaker 3: be the martyr and throw yourself into work when you're

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Speaker 3: not feeling well. Work will survive without you, and probably

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Speaker 3: better if you don't take your bugs with you. And

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Speaker 3: then once you spend mone you're back on your feet

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Speaker 3: back to work, do you think and the whole community

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Speaker 3: will thank you ultimately for doing that good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin Carl, the CEO of the Palmerston GP Superclinic,

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Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for having your chat with us.

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Speaker 3: Not a problem, Katie, Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 2: Thank you