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COVID-19 Medicines Q&A with Brett Sutton and Gerard Mansour

Recently I've heard a bit about COVID medicine, so just wondering if lots of older people would be interested one of these covered medicines.

One of the big changes in recent weeks is certainly antiviral medication. And so these are oral therapies. So tablets that you can take that work against the virus, they stop it multiplying and they reduce the load of the virus in your body. And really, it's giving your body a chance for the immune system to kick in to get you through that infection.

Really important if you're eligible and it's everyone over 70 and lots of people with preexisting conditions who are 56 and over or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders 50 and over.

So what can, what can family and friends sort of talk to older people about in encouraging them to think about moving further in terms of their vaccinations?

Look, I think it's just flagging that that kind of logistic hurdle that people come around to just book it in. So if there's something that they can do, pick up the phone to the to the pharmacy that might provide it to a GP, that might provide it and and get that date, because a lot of people just don't get around to that final exercise of planning it and locking it in.

What should people be thinking about now in terms of where they're up to, in terms of their own vaccination approach?

So obviously, we've got fantastic coverage for two doses. You know, almost everyone who's eligible has gotten two doses. But we've talked about those boosters and there's a third dose and a fourth dose that are really now routine for just about everyone, certainly for older Australians. We want everyone to have taken a fourth dose.

So some of the maybe the practical things that we can talk about to families about still the importance of staying connected. And so the innovative, you know, picking up the telephone, still doing video calls, don't let people drift away out of your life.

Yeah, absolutely. And obviously, you know, we've been through the hardest time over the last two and a half years and there's a lot of catching up to do. But we're also not in a place where the risk is is gone. So we have to find other creative ways to stay in touch and to support each other's wellbeing. If people aren't at a point where they feel free or able to to catch up face to face.

Reviewed 16 December 2022