Vaccination plea
THE Nurses of Australia are thinking of you in this uncertain time. We've seen first-hand and heard thousands of stories about how damaging COVID-19 can be.
Last year, all we wished for was a vaccine to turbo-charge our fight and to get back to 'normal'. And now we have it.
We know many people are worried about the quality of the vaccines available and their potential side-effects. However, we implore you to look at the facts:
- The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use in Australia on February 16, following the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) rigorous assessment and approval process. This includes assessment of its safety, quality and effectiveness.
- The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the TGA for use in Australia on January 25, after a rigorous assessment and approval process. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been provisionally approved by the TGA's for individuals 16 years and older.
- As of late May, there have been 4.2 million doses given in Australia, and 493,000 people are fully vaccinated. 15 per cent of the population has had one dose.
- All health workers, airport and quarantine staff are being vaccinated to ensure they can serve the community safely.
- Over 40,000 nurses and midwives have completed COVID Vaccination Training and Nurse Immunisation qualifications in the past six months. We are work-ready to deliver the vaccines safely to you.
With winter now here, we the nursing profession of Australia want you to know that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the best chance you have of protecting you and your loved ones.
Take it from us, from your nurses, get your COVID-19 vaccination as soon as you can.
Kylie Ward,
Australian College of Nursing chief executive officer.
Apathy our biggest enemy
THIS fortnight marks a decade since northern Australia was thrown into turmoil with the airing of A Bloody Business, showing the atrocious handling of Australian cattle in Indonesian facilities.
A time I remember all too well for the massive mix of emotions it evoked. My husband and I were still finding our feet, after only stepping out into our own livestock agency, heavily reliant on live exports, the four months prior.
I walked around the Charters Towers sale the morning following Joe Ludwig's suspension on live export into Indonesia, and I remember the shellshock of the people there. Agriculture in the north is always uncertain due to the climate, but to be so blatantly disregarded on a whim by the federal government was something else.
As I reflect on what's happened over those 10 years, I've pondered on what I've learnt as an individual and what we've learnt collectively as a broad community and an industry. I think one of the biggest lessons, although one that is still often disregarded, is that apathy is our biggest enemy. This time 10 years ago, there was an air of desperation to share what we did well, to connect, to talk, to communicate.
While that pace we ran at during that frenzied time couldn't be sustained for an extended period, for a lot of the part, we've seemed to slip off the other end of the scale again and have gone to ground and just talk among ourselves.
Ten years on, we still have the catch cry of "telling our story" and more should do it. We should be proactive rather than reactive. In some instances, it seems that we've fallen back into waiting for that horse to bolt before we do anything about the dodgy stable door. It's not a cycle I want to spiral into.
But by golly, there have been many positives coming out of that time. We found our voices, we found each other, and we learnt what we could achieve all singing from the same hymn sheet.
Kylie Stretton,
Charters Towers, Qld.
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