A vaccinologist at the University of Auckland thinks the government "could have gone earlier and wider" with its vaccination rollout.
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"It's absolutely clear that there are a lot of providers out there and all sorts of healthcare workers that still don't have the information they need and they need[ed] it yesterday," Dr Helen Petousis-Harris told Morning Report.
She said there's been a lot of thought put into who is a priority for the vaccine but she thinks the age threshold for New Zealanders to be considered higher risk, and be prioritised, should be dropped from 65-years-old to 45.
That would simplify the rollout and is consistent with evidence around risk, she said.
"That makes it less complex I would have thought in some respects but then in saying that this is very early stages and we've got these quite defined priority groups. I think very soon as we [ramp up the vaccine rollout] it's going to become less relevant."
You've got to balance these decisions with the amount of vaccine coming in, she said.
This week a managed isolation hotel worker who had received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine tested positive for Covid-19.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the vaccine cannot give a person Covid-19, but it takes some time to build an immune response. He said people are likely to get the full effectiveness of the vaccineafter seven days of having the second dose.
The hotel worker had their second dose only a few days before testing positive.
"You can't assume you're bulletproof as soon as you've got the vaccine," Dr Petousis-Harris said.
"We also don't yet know what sort of proportion of vaccinated people can still pick up the virus and spread it, even if they don't become sick."
Dr Petousis-Harris said the data currently available shows vaccines do reduce transmission and have a good impact on community immunity.
