As COVID numbers climb, some GPs are choosing to get more than the recommended number of boosters. 

Last week, ATAGI recommended against people getting a fifth dose of the COVID vaccine, just as COVID infection numbers increased across the country.

The decision, Health Minister Mark Butler explained, was based on international evidence, particularly from Singapore, which showed that severe disease and death were rare in people who had at least two doses of the COVID vaccine.

“Any reduction in community transmission in Australia from an additional booster dose in people who are already up to date is likely to be minimal,” ATAGI said.

Fifth doses of the COVID vaccine are now available for adults with severely compromised immune systems and children with severe health conditions or disability.

ATAGI recommends four COVID doses for people over the age of 30, three doses for people aged 16-29, and two doses for people under the age of 15.

In a Healthed survey this week of around 300 GPs, 96% said they were up-to-date with their COVID vaccinations.

Interestingly, 36% of GPs surveyed said that they were personally planning to get more COVID boosters than were currently recommended by ATAGI, and 28% were undecided. The remaining 36% appeared to be satisfied to follow ATAGI’s advice.

This cohort for this survey was mostly aged 55 and over (77%) and would mostly be eligible for four doses of the COVID vaccine under the PBS.

Dr Gary Grohmann, an infectious disease expert who is delivering a lecture on COVID on 7 December, said additional COVID boosters would provide little benefit except in particularly vulnerable groups.

“The benefit is quite marginal and that’s why ATAGI has been hesitant,” he says.

The COVID vaccines have rare but significant side-effects, including blood clots with AstraZeneca and myocarditis with the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.

“So, the risk-benefit is not positive and that’s what ATAGI concluded, so I agree with that.”

“We need new vaccines,” he says. “We don’t need the same old, same old because they won’t stop infection. I think we need a whole new approach… In particular, we need to look at antiviral drugs, and make much more use of those for people that get an acute infection that are at high risk of severe illness.”

An additional survey question, asked at the same time, found that more than 50% of GPs claimed to have not yet contracted COVID. Up to 80% of the Australian population is thought to have had the infection by now.