Two elderly Australians have been accidentally given a Covid-19 vaccine 'overdose' in a bungle at a Queensland aged care home.
An 88-year-old man has been taken to hospital as a precaution and the 94-year-old woman is understood to be fine.
The doctor who administered the extra dosage has been stood down.
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Federal Health Minister said they wanted to be upfront about any issues with the vaccine rollout but insists this is an isolated incident that isn't representative of the wider programme.
"Basically a doctor gave an incorrect dose to two patients yesterday," he said.
"This is an individual practitioner who has clearly made an error and around the country - and you will remember from multiple press conferences, I've indicated that whether it's the flu, whether it's other things, during the course of any one year, there would be challenges, issues and errors.
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"Ordinarily they wouldn't necessarily be focused on. They'd be dealt with through the ordinary measures.
"Because of the national focus on this, it's natural and understandable that those things which would ordinarily occur are given greater prominence.
"I absolutely understand that and, indeed, I've made the decision that I thought we should address this upfront to show that the safety guards that were put in place did actually work."
When the vaccine was going through testing phases, researchers experimented with administering higher doses that were sometimes three or four times a regular jab.
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During that experiment, the side effects weren't a big problem. Chief Health Officer Professor Paul Kelly adds that this issue has already affected places in German and the UK.
"The side effect profile was minimal, particularly in older people, so that gives us hope," Professor Kelly said.
"I was assured that everything that had been done on the site was what we would have expected and that a full incident reporting system had been actioned."
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called for national cabinet meeting to discuss the issue.
She is particularly annoyed that the overdoses happened on Tuesday (February 23) morning and she wasn't informed until later in the evening.
"In fact, the Health Minister [Yvette D'Ath] herself rang me late last night and we convened again this morning at 7am," she said. "Discovering these details now is simply not good enough."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Australia