{"id":3444,"date":"2025-05-30T13:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2025-05-30T13:34:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:34:30","slug":"aussies-avoid-getting-the-covid-19-vaccine-we-have-dropped-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/?p=3444","title":{"rendered":"Aussies avoid getting the Covid-19 vaccine: \u2018We have dropped the ball\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians are being cautioned about the potential threat posed by falling Covid-19 vaccination rates amid the emergence of a new, highly contagious variant.<\/p>\n

The subvariant NB.1.8.1\u2014first identified on January 21\u2014is now driving a surge in Covid-19 cases across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It has also become the dominant strain in Western Australia, contributing to a 24% increase in case numbers.<\/p>\n

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Professor Paul Griffin, infectious diseases expert at Mater Hospital in Brisbane, noted that current Covid vaccination rates are at their lowest since vaccines were first introduced five years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lost momentum with Covid-19 vaccinations,\u201d said Prof Griffin. \u201cBut the virus remains widespread and continues to pose a significant risk, especially to high-risk individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recommends an annual Covid booster for vulnerable populations, similar to the seasonal flu shot. \u201cWith winter beginning next week, now is the time to get vaccinated\u2014and it\u2019s safe to receive the Covid and flu vaccines together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NB.1.8.1 is one of hundreds of Omicron subvariants and is contributing to rising infections and hospitalisations, especially in Asia and Western Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australians are being cautioned about the potential threat posed by falling Covid-19 vaccination rates amid the emergence of a new, highly contagious variant. The subvariant NB.1.8.1\u2014first identified on January 21\u2014is now driving a surge...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3445,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions\/3445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}