The " Triage " Approach !

 Around the world, several coronavirus vaccines are in use to protect citizens from this pandemic and vaccinations will start in Australia as early as next month or at the latest in March, The scientists responsible for their creation admit that none delivers a hundred percent protection against this disease.

At best, the vaccine will reduce the severity of the impact on human bodies and it is hoped it will sharply reduce the death rate which is now runs well over a million casualties world wide.  The urgency of bringing it to our defence has shortened the usual testing programmes accorded to new drugs.

One of the factors excluded from testing was the effect this vaccine may have on pregnant women - and  their babies.  As a result, the World Health Organization ( WHO ) said it did not recommend that the Pfizer vaccine be given to pregnant women, with the exception of health staff  at unavoidable risk of exposure, or those with complicated health systems.

We are just days away from the start of a programme that  must strike fear into the heart of Australian women of child bearing age.  For those already pregnant, the decision whether or not to vaccinate is now crucial and for others, an unexpected pregnancy will be a calamity.    Until the safety of this vaccine is  decided there will probably be a m assive gap in the Australian birth rate.

Much of the Australian economy is geared towards a constant flow of children through the  system,  We have a massive number of early learning centres which allow mothers to take their place in the work force and those children go on to primary school, and from there to high school and university.   The needs of that geographic is what drives a percentage of Australian industry and any interruption will be commercially catastrophic.

At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that these vaccinations post any sort of risk to pregnant women or their babies, but because they were not part of the testing programme carried out we have no outcome either way.   Even if a testing programme gets under way immediately, it will be many months before it delivers a satisfactory result.

When vaccinations start in the next few weeks the decision whether to have the jab or reject it will fall heavily on the individual choice of pregnant women across all strata of our society.  Nursing homes and aged care facilities are big employers of women and this virus is particularly deadly for the aged.  It is likely that this work sector will automatically terminate unvaccinated workers as a safety measure.

The decision to release vaccination on the community came at government level and was probably inevitable.  The disease was delivering a high mortality rate and wrecking the economy and some risk  must be accepted to stabilize the nation.   Had the effects of vaccination been tested on pregnant women and its effect on their babies, the release for the public would haver been delayed by months - and possibly years.

That is the way the triage system works.  Make the decision where the greatest numbers with the highest priority  can be saved, and that is exactly what is happening with this vaccination release  !