As West Australians learn to live with COVID, fewer people are getting booster shots. But experts say it's not the time to become complacent.
As Western Australia's third COVID-19 vaccine dose rate slumps, experts are urging the community to keep getting boosted.Health experts believe people are less scared of COVIDThe state is still leading the country with more than 82 per cent of over 16s triple-dosed, but that rate has shifted less than two per cent in the past month.
"Also, you can't get vaccinated for three months after you've had COVID, and we've had significant increases in infections, so that's also affecting the immunisation rates." "I think people who were really worried went and had it early, and I think other people probably put it off, because they weren't worried or in fact had an infection," she said.UWA Public Health lecturer Barbara Nattabi said fatigue was likely a factor."People are tiring of the pandemic, we're getting used to the numbers.
Dr Nattabi said there were also pockets of communities that had healthcare access issues, which needed to be investigated. "We have a lot to celebrate, it's not doom and gloom, but it's important for the government to find out about the remaining people who haven't been boosted — is there something that can be done?" Dr Nattabi said.With most of winter still to go, Professor Bennett said booster vaccines were a critical part of protecting the community against COVID-19.
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