Is Australias vaccine rollout ageist?
Our weekly science newsletter, Examine, is sent every Tuesday. The latest instalment is below. Sign up to get it in your inbox here. When it comes to the coronavirus in Australia, age is everything. It drastically influences your odds of dying of the disease, and it largely decides when youre eligible for a vaccine, and if so, which one you will receive. You will be at the front of the queue if you are older, but after another bombshell change in advice from the nations top vaccine advisers last week, it also means you have a single choice of vaccine, a jab that many say has received unwarranted negative publicity over a rare blood clotting complication. I think this is the first time in my life that I have felt the invisibility of old-age, wrote one reader recently. Over sixty, no choice, you still get the AstraZeneca vaccine. The risk may be slightly lower, but it still exists.