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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Daily OS. My name

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Speaker 1: is Sam Kazlowski. Thanks so much for joining us today.

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Speaker 1: In New South Wales yesterday there were four hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety six cases of COVID nineteen. In Victoria there were

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Speaker 1: sixteen hundred and twelve and the ACT recorded thirty two cases. Zara,

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Speaker 1: it's the morning after the Night of Freedom Day in

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Speaker 1: Sydney yesterday. Absolutely no one was deterred by the wet

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Speaker 1: weather and I have a funny feeling there are some

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Speaker 1: sore heads around New South Wales this morning. Please talk

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Speaker 1: softly for our friends with hangovers. What else is making

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Speaker 1: news this morning?

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Speaker 2: There's some COVID news out of South Australia. A Fly

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Speaker 2: and Flyout mine worker who arrived in Adelaide on Sunday

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Speaker 2: evening has tested positive for COVID nineteen after catching a

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Speaker 2: flight from Melbourne. The jet Staff flight and hotel she

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Speaker 2: is quarantining in have been listed as Tier one exposure.

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Speaker 1: Sites to Victorian News Now. And Victorian Labor Minister Luke

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Speaker 1: Dannellen has resigned from the Andrews Ministry after admitting he

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Speaker 1: had previously breached party rules while a minister Danellan was

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Speaker 1: at the center of ranch stacking allegations, which were aired

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Speaker 1: at an anti corruption hearing yesterday.

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Speaker 2: The US government will provide humanitarian aid quote directly to

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Speaker 2: the Afghan people as the Biden administration continues to refuse

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Speaker 2: political recognition of the Taliban. It comes after the two

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Speaker 2: countries concluded their first direct talks since the Taliban took

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Speaker 2: control of Afghanistan's government in August.

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Speaker 1: And today's good news Queensland, it's your turn to hit

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Speaker 1: seventy percent first dose vaccination rates. Yesterday, Premier Anastasia Paliche

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Speaker 1: said this is a big step towards our goal of

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Speaker 1: eighty percent double doses for Queenslanders. Making headlines yesterday was

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Speaker 1: a new report that warns that more than twenty low

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Speaker 1: income countries will not reach seventy percent vaccination until after

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty if hire income countries don't step in to help.

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Speaker 1: The report called on Australia to donate more COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: vaccines to low income countries. Today, we're going to break

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Speaker 1: down some of the key findings of this report and

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Speaker 1: also look at the Kovax model overseas, particularly what the

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Speaker 1: Biden government has pledged in the last couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: so to lay some groundwork for you, the report was

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Speaker 1: authored by researchers, analysts and leaders from eleven organizations and

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Speaker 1: this included Australia's Burnett Institute, the Australian Global Health Alliance,

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Speaker 1: Medicine san Frontier Australia, UNICEF Australia and World Vision Australia.

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Speaker 2: So what the report found in numbers is that less

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Speaker 2: than four percent of people in low income countries have

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Speaker 2: received the first dose of a COVID vaccine. Additionally, two

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Speaker 2: thirds of seventy seven epidemiologists surveyed in twenty eight low

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Speaker 2: income countries believe if action is not taken now, it'll

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Speaker 2: take less than a year before the virus mutates. There's also,

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Speaker 2: of course, the economic impact of distribution inequity. Australia stands

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Speaker 2: to lose between seven point six billion and thirty three

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Speaker 2: two point seven billion of GDP through an unnecessary prolonging

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Speaker 2: of the pandemic. When looking at what the Australian government

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Speaker 2: should be doing, the report calls on the government to

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Speaker 2: spend fifty million dollars on combating vaccine hesitancy in Southeast

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Speaker 2: Asia and the Pacific through what they characterize as strengthen

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Speaker 2: partnerships with trusted community led organizations.

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Speaker 1: So to break all that down, essentially, what the report

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Speaker 1: is saying is that for Australia to come out of

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Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic as a strong member of the

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Speaker 1: Asia Pacific region, we need to do a little bit

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Speaker 1: more work in supporting our Pacific neighbors in their vaccine rollouts.

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Speaker 1: The benefits to this strengthening can manifest for us as

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Speaker 1: a stronger relationship tourism wise with these countries. And also

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Speaker 1: these are some of our biggest trading partners in the region,

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Speaker 1: so a healthier population there is going to make us

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Speaker 1: economically better off. Now, on top of all of that,

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Speaker 1: we also want to foster a culture of caring about

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Speaker 1: our Pacific neighbors, and the report strongly recommends that Australia

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Speaker 1: steps in as a leader with resources to help some

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Speaker 1: of the lower income Pacific countries. In terms of concrete steps,

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Speaker 1: the report notes that twenty million doses is what they're

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Speaker 1: looking for for a donation. That's on top of a

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty million dollar pledge to secure COVID

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Speaker 1: vaccines for these countries through the Global Kovax Facility. Zara.

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Speaker 1: The Kovax Facility was introduced about a year ago now

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Speaker 1: and is led by the US. What exactly do they promise?

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Speaker 2: What the scheme hopes to achieve is to distribute enough

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Speaker 2: vaccines to protect at least twenty percent of the population

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Speaker 2: in ninety two or so low to medium income countries,

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Speaker 2: so that's starting with healthcare workers and the most vulnerable groups.

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Speaker 2: The initial goal was to provide two billion doses of

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Speaker 2: vaccines worldwide in twenty twenty one, and one point eight

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Speaker 2: billion doses to ninety two lower income countries by early

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: What we've seen, though, is some major production challenges. For example,

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Speaker 1: last month, US President Joe Biden recently doubled the US's

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Speaker 1: commitment to donate COVID nineteen vaccines to lower income countries

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Speaker 1: to actually providing one point one billion of the two

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Speaker 1: billion doses pledged by the Kovax Facility plan. However, according

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Speaker 1: to experts, only three hundred million of these one point

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Speaker 1: one billion doses are expected to land in lower income

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Speaker 1: countries before the end of the year. I did a

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Speaker 1: bit of reading to try and understand why exactly this

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Speaker 1: is the case, and essentially the answer is that there

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Speaker 1: needs to be a very delicate balance hit between producing

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Speaker 1: enough vaccines in the factories, which are often in higher

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Speaker 1: income countries, so that they're not actually going to expire

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Speaker 1: by the time they get to lower income countries, and

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Speaker 1: working out what the supply and demand needs are for

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Speaker 1: the higher income countries, which naturally are going to come

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Speaker 1: in the priority list for a country like the US

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Speaker 1: before the vaccines get shipped offshore. What we're finding is

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Speaker 1: that vaccines set to expire within a few weeks are

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Speaker 1: often shipped off to other countries. An example of that

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Speaker 1: happened in September, where vaccines donated by Canada and the

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Speaker 1: UK to the African Union only were valid for a

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Speaker 1: couple of days when they hit the ground in Africa.

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Speaker 1: This obviously doesn't allow enough time for local health systems

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Speaker 1: to accommodate the specific needs of the communities they're serving,

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Speaker 1: such as getting vaccines to rule and remote areas. There's

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Speaker 1: another complexity on top of all of this, and that's

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Speaker 1: that mRNA vaccines like Faza and Maderna require refrigeration. That's

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Speaker 1: an entire different infrastructure challenge on this.

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Speaker 2: The Minister for International Development and the Pacific, who's z

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Speaker 2: Cceldia said that Australia's committed more than seven hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty million dollars to support vaccine access initiatives to date,

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Speaker 2: and adds that Australia is proudly committed to sharing sixty

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Speaker 2: million vaccines with our neighbors in the Indo Pacific by

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Speaker 2: the end of twenty twenty two, and that we've shared

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Speaker 2: over three and a half million vaccines directly with our

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Speaker 2: region to date.

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Speaker 1: It does seem to me like this could be another

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Speaker 1: important element of Australia's place in the Pacific. We've gone

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Speaker 1: quite quickly from a country that really didn't have our

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Speaker 1: own vaccine rollout sorted to now being looked at by

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Speaker 1: other countries in the Asia Pacific region to supply surplus vaccines.

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Speaker 1: It's a really interesting point. I'd love to know what

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Speaker 1: you think. Feel free to dm us on Instagram as

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Speaker 1: to what you see our role with the vaccine rollout

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Speaker 1: in the wider Asia Pacific region to be. Until then,

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Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram and you won't miss a beat.

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Speaker 1: We cover everything from COVID vaccines to latest political developments

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Speaker 1: and it's worth a look. Until we speak tomorrow, have

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Speaker 1: a fantastic Tuesday and stay safe