Hello, everyone. I'm Dr Sonya Bennett, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health. I'm here today to answer the top three questions, as provided by you through our social media channels. But before I do that, we often give a shout-out to members in the community involved in COVID. And today, I want to give a shout-out to you. We're in our third year of COVID, it's been very challenging for everybody, and everybody is very tired. But I really want to give a shout-out to yourselves for continuing to seek out factual information where you can through channels such as this social media channel and other websites, so that you have the right information you need to support your decision making.
So, now we'll move to the first question, and the first question for today is, "Will the Novavax vaccine require a booster?" So, we did touch on this a little at the last session, just talking about whether Novavax vaccine can be a booster. So, we'll cover both topics again today. But as many know, a booster dose of the COVID vaccine three months after completion of your primary course with any vaccine really does provide that further protection that's going to be needed through the course of the pandemic. And currently, the expectation is that people who receive their primary course with Novavax vaccine, which was only approved recently on 20 January, will also benefit from having this booster three months after finishing their primary course. But at the moment, it is the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are approved as boosters for eligible people. And we do know that there is interest in understanding whether Novavax will also be approved as a booster. It is currently not approved as a booster, but the TGA will be in discussion and contact with the company that makes Novavax vaccine to continue that process of whether or not Novavax can be approved as a booster in the future. So, I just recommend that when you're due for your booster, you check where that is up to. And if not, Pfizer and Moderna are perfectly safe and acceptable vaccines for a booster.
