Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1 February 1998 [1] |
Jurisdiction | Australian Government |
Employees | 15 members |
Agency executives |
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Parent department | Department of Health |
Website | health |
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is a technical advisory group of the Australian Government. As part of the Department of Health, ATAGI provides advice to the Minister of Health on the immunisation program of Australia and related matters, including the strength of evidence pertaining to existing, new, and emerging vaccines. [1] [2] [3]
ATAGI's role [2]
ATAGI's members are appointed by Minister of Health (including a Chair and Deputy Chair) through an informal nomination process for a term of four years. ATAGI comprise voting members (including a Chair and Deputy Chair) and six ex-officio members, which are: [4]
As of May 2024 [update] , ATAGI's voting member are as follows: [1]
No. | Position | Name | Start Date | End Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Chair | Dr. Nigel Crawford | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2024 |
2 | Deputy Chair | Assoc Prof Michelle Giles | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2024 |
3 | Member | Dr. Julia Marshall | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
4 | Member | Associate Professor Benjamin Teh | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
5 | Member | Ms. Kristy Cooper | 25 January 2021 | 30 June 2025 |
6 | Member | Dr. Rosalind Webby | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
7 | Member | Dr. Katherine Gibney | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
8 | Member | Prof. Margaret Danchin | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
9 | Member | Dr. Nicholas Silberstein | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2024 |
10 | Member | Ms. Diane Walsh | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2025 |
11 | Member | Prof. James Wood | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2025 |
12 | Member | Ms. Karen Bellamy | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
13 | Member | Prof. Katie Flanagan | 1 July 2023 | 30 June 2027 |
14 | Member | Prof. Penelope Burns | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2025 |
15 | Member | Prof. Allen Cheng | 1 January 2023 | 30 June 2025 |
Temporary members may be appointed on a short term basis to provide specific expertise on key topics. Temporary members will be voting members for the term of their appointment to ATAGI. [5]
The standard number of ATAGI meetings is six per year (in February, April, June, August, October and December), however they are yet to meet in 2024. These are pre-planned annually, according to the schedules of government and department programmes for the year. However, it is open for ATAGI to organise meetings and consultations at any time, whenever there may be need, on the group's initiative, or at the request of the department. [6] [7]
On 8 April 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, ATAGI met with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regarding the recent concerns of blood clots following administration of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. ATAGI advised the government to use the AstraZeneca vaccine only for people over the age of 50. [8] [9] However on 17 June 2021, after cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and two deaths, ATAGI changed their previous advice and only recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 60 years-of-age. The Commonwealth government followed their advice. [10]
On 27 August 2021, Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine has been recommended by ATAGI for adolescents aged 12 years or older after the TGA had extended the registration of the vaccine for administration to those age groups on 23 July 2021. [11]
On 8 October 2021, ATAGI recommends the government start the rollout of booster dose (3rd dose) of COVID-19 vaccines for severely immunocompromised persons aged 12 years old or older. The preferable vaccines for booster dose are the mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna). A 2 to 6 months interval for the booster dose from the date of second dose of the previous vaccine is recommended by ATAGI. [12]
On 28 October 2021, ATAGI recommends the Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine as a booster dose for Australians aged 18 years or older, regardless of the previous COVID-19 vaccine used. The booster dose should be taken after six months from the second dose of the last course vaccination. However, the booster dose is not mandatory but recommended for high priority groups like aged care facilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, healthcare workers, people with underlying medical conditions, and people at increased occupational risk of COVID-19. [13]
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the medicine and therapeutic regulatory agency of the Australian Government. As part of the Department of Health and Aged Care, the TGA regulates the quality, supply and advertising of medicines, pathology devices, medical devices, blood products and most other therapeutics. Any items that claim to have a therapeutic effect, are involved in the administration of medication, or are otherwise covered by the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990, or a ministerial order, must be approved by the TGA and registered in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is an independent expert advisory committee that advises United Kingdom health departments on immunisation, making recommendations concerning vaccination schedules and vaccine safety. It has a statutory role in England and Wales, and health departments in Scotland and Northern Ireland may choose to accept its advice.
The Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID‑19 vaccine, sold under the brand names Covishield and Vaxzevria among others, is a viral vector vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19. It was developed in the United Kingdom by Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, using as a vector the modified chimpanzee adenovirus ChAdOx1. The vaccine is given by intramuscular injection. Studies carried out in 2020 showed that the efficacy of the vaccine is 76.0% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 beginning at 22 days following the first dose and 81.3% after the second dose. A study in Scotland found that, for symptomatic COVID-19 infection after the second dose, the vaccine is 81% effective against the Alpha variant and 61% against the Delta variant.
The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, sold under the brand name Comirnaty, is an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by the German biotechnology company BioNTech. For its development, BioNTech collaborated with the American company Pfizer to carry out clinical trials, logistics, and manufacturing. It is authorized for use in humans to provide protection against COVID-19, caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The vaccine is given by intramuscular injection. It is composed of nucleoside-modified mRNA (modRNA) that encodes a mutated form of the full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which is encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles. Initial guidance recommended a two-dose regimen, given 21 days apart; this interval was subsequently extended to up to 42 days in the United States, and up to four months in Canada.
The COVID-19 vaccination programme in the United Kingdom is an ongoing mass immunisation campaign for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in the Philippines was a mass immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the pandemic in the country. The vaccination program was initiated by the Duterte administration on March 1, 2021, a day after the arrival of the country's first vaccine doses which were donated by the Chinese government.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was isolated in late 2019. Its genetic sequence was published on 11 January 2020, triggering an urgent international response to prepare for an outbreak and hasten the development of a preventive COVID-19 vaccine. Since 2020, vaccine development has been expedited via unprecedented collaboration in the multinational pharmaceutical industry and between governments. By June 2020, tens of billions of dollars were invested by corporations, governments, international health organizations, and university research groups to develop dozens of vaccine candidates and prepare for global vaccination programs to immunize against COVID‑19 infection. According to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the geographic distribution of COVID‑19 vaccine development shows North American entities to have about 40% of the activity, compared to 30% in Asia and Australia, 26% in Europe, and a few projects in South America and Africa.
The general COVID-19 vaccination in Australia program began on 22 February 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of vaccinating all willing people in Australia before 2022. Front-line workers and aged care staff and residents had priority for being inoculated, before a gradual phased release to less-vulnerable and lower-risk population groups throughout 2021. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved four vaccines for Australian use in 2021: the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine on 25 January, the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine on 16 February, Janssen vaccine on 25 June and the Moderna vaccine on 9 August. Although approved for use, the Janssen vaccine was not included in the Australian vaccination program as of June 2021.
The COVID-19 vaccination programme in the Republic of Ireland is an ongoing mass immunisation campaign that began on 29 December 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland's vaccination rollout has been praised as one of the most successful rollouts in the world and was ranked number one in the European Union in terms of its percentage of adult population fully vaccinated, and was also ranked number one in the EU for the number of booster vaccines administered.
COVID-19 vaccination in Canada is an ongoing, intergovernmental effort coordinated between the bodies responsible in the Government of Canada to acquire and distribute vaccines to individual provincial and territorial governments who in turn administer authorized COVID-19 vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Provinces have worked with local municipal governments, hospital systems, family doctors and independently owned pharmacies to aid in part, or in full with vaccination rollout. The vaccination effort in full is the largest such immunization effort in the nation's history. The vaccination effort began December 14, 2020, and is currently ongoing.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in Colombia is an ongoing effort of mass immunization put in place by the Colombian government in order to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus causing COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Colombia on 6 March 2020. Colombia's preparation and readiness for a vaccine program allowed it to join the first group of countries who received vaccines through COVAX. The first vaccine in Colombia was given to a nurse on 17 February 2021.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is an advisory body that provides the Government of Canada with medical and scientific advice relating to human immunization.
Post-vaccination embolic and thrombotic events, termed vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT), thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), or vaccine-associated thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VATT), are rare types of blood clotting syndromes that were initially observed in a number of people who had previously received the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID‑19 vaccine (AZD1222) during the COVID‑19 pandemic. It was subsequently also described in the Janssen COVID‑19 vaccine, leading to the suspension of its use until its safety had been reassessed. On 5 May 2022 the FDA posted a bulletin limiting the use of the Janssen Vaccine to very specific cases due to further reassessment of the risks of TTS, although the FDA also stated in the same bulletin that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Quebec is an ongoing provincial effort to distribute and administer vaccines against COVID-19.
COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil is an ongoing mass immunization campaign for the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. It started on January 17, 2021, when the country had 210 thousand deaths.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign began in Fiji on the first quarter of 2021 and will continue throughout the year with the goal of vaccinating all eligible Fijians. The government has made it mandatory for all eligible adults to take the COVID-19 vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccination in Ontario began in December 2020, when the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered. In February 2021, shipments for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increased significantly. By May 2021, over 50 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose. By the beginning of 2022, over 80 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose.