COVID vaccines now at pharmacy

The John Mitchell Pharmacy has this week joined the growing number of com-munity pharmacies who are now able to offer COVID-19 vaccines to residents.
Pharmacist Elsa Norvill, who has undergone specialised training to administer the vac-cines, commenced dispensing Moderna and AstraZeneca shots yesterday.
The vaccinations are free and can be organ-ised by making an appointment at the pharma-cy or through the Med Advisor app.
Elsa said they will be doing vaccinations three days a week with AstraZeneca offered to adults 18 years and older while the Moder-na vaccine is available for 12 years and up.
“I’ll explain the process to the patient and what the risks and benefits of it are.
“It’s not just: ‘Do you know what vaccine you want and which arm?’ I think it’s im-portant that people know the risks and bene-fits because there is lots of one-sided publicity about it,” Elsa said.
“It’s their choice if they want to get the vaccine and people shouldn’t feel pressed into it. There’s a lot of division over this vaccine and it would be nice if we could all unite to-gether and not fight about whether or not you’ve had the vaccine. Let’s fight this to-gether.”
Elsa said she’s happy to answer any ques-tions about the vaccines.
The number of COVID-19 vaccines admin-istered to date by community pharmacists hit the one million mark last week with Pharma-ceutical Society of Australia National Presi-dent A/Prof Chris Freeman saying pharma-cists are the key to getting Australia’s vac-cination rates over the line.