COVID WA: Aged care residents dying needlessly due to vaccine complacency, health advocates warn

Aged care residents in WA are dying needlessly from COVID because of complacency and the lowest immunisation rate in the nation, outraged health advocates complain. There were outbreaks of the disease at 35 aged care homes across WA last week. They coincide with another wave of infection to slam the State. WA Health revealed on Tuesday that hospitalisations were up 57 per cent on the previous fortnight. Deaths were also increasing with 15 people succumbing to the disease in the past two weeks. Recent wastewater sampling results show concentrations of the virus are surging in WA. Hospitalisations are close to the level they were at the peak of January’s wave. Rosewood Aged Care in West Perth was dealing with the biggest outbreak in the country, with 78 residents and 37 staff infected with the highly contagious JN.1.X sub-strain of the virus. “As at 2 May 2024, there have been less than six COVID-related deaths reported in the current outbreak at Rosewood Care in West Perth,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Aged Care said. “The department is unable to provide specific figures due to privacy restrictions.” It said there were 43 COVID-related deaths reported in WA residential aged care homes so far this year. Despite older age being the biggest risk factor for severe illness and death, less than one third of the aged care residents in the State have had their recommended booster dose in the past six months. The 32.9 per cent coverage compares with a national average of 42.2 per cent. Tasmania has the highest coverage (54.8 per cent). Clare Mullen, Executive Director of the WA Health Consumers Council, said she’d written to both State and Federal Governments calling for urgent action and collaboration between them. “I am outraged,” she said. “I don’t know why anybody in WA wouldn’t be outraged that we have very consistently either the bottom or the second bottom vaccination rate in aged care homes. “One of the responses that I hear a lot is, ‘well, you know, people aren’t that bothered by COVID anymore, and they don’t want to be vaccinated, and we can’t make them be vaccinated’. “To some extent, I can understand that, but I don’t think that’s a strong public health response. I don’t think it’s okay to say, ‘well, people don’t want to get vaccinated, so we’re not going to do anything about helping people understand why it might be good if they got vaccinated’. “The sense I have is that the the public health approach at the moment seems to be a shrug of the shoulders and saying ‘well, what can you do?’ You don’t say that about smoking? And you don’t say that about drinking. And you certainly don’t say about obesity. So why would you say it about COVID?” Former Australian Medical Association WA President, Andrew Miller, said there had been a failure of public health leadership. ‘Either you value human life or you don’t,” said Dr Miller, who is chairman of public health promotion charity OzSAGE. “We care to the degree that we put elderly people in hospital to fix their hip fractures, but not give them their COVID vaccines efficiently - it’s a failure of leadership,” he said. “It’s not like this involves inconvenience to anyone. Immunising the elderly is something we would expect the government to just be taking care of.” Dr Miller agreed with Ms Mullen that public health messaging around protecting the elderly and other vulnerable groups from COVID appeared non-existent. Although aged care was a federal responsibility, it was also an issue the State Government should care about, he said. “These people live in our state and they go to our hospitals and the fact that residential aged care is under the jurisdiction of the Feds is a technicality,” Dr Miller said. “They’re just making mealy-mouthed excuses, instead of spending money on advertising properly and making sure that the message is getting through. I don’t think anyone in the system is getting the urgency of this.” The Department of Health and Aged Care said the Commonwealth supported access to free vaccinations via payments to GPs and pharmacists, and funding to Primary Health Networks which were in direct contact with residential aged care homes. It said it delivered regular communications to aged care providers and workers. The department said there were a number of barriers “which may contribute to people not getting their boosters.” “These include vaccine fatigue, the WHO announcing the end of the public health emergency, reduced sentiment around urgency of COVID and perceived reduced risk of COVID,” a spokesperson said. “For those living in residential aged care homes, consent must be obtained for each vaccination episode. It must be given by a person with legal capacity, and of sufficient intellectual capacity to understand the implications of receiving a vaccine.” Ms Mullen said vaccination remained the best protection from the disease. “For many people in the community this is still a serious condition that can have serious implications. COVID is not like any other infection,” she said. “It’s not done with us. We’re still finding evidence about the impact of multiple infections. “Even though there are some known side effects (with vaccines), as there are with all medications, the risks that exist are greater if you are infected with COVID.” WA Health on Friday said it was supporting the Commonwealth to lift vaccination rates. “The WA Immunisation Program is working closely with the WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) to identify opportunities to support current services provided to residential aged care facilities,” a spokesperson said. “WAPHA has advised that they are reviewing processes to improve the program to increase access and improve rates.” Rosewood Care Group chief executive Jackie Shade said: “Rosewood continues to review its policies and procedures which support our management of any infectious outbreak within our facilities. We continue to report our incidences to the federal and state authorities and modify our management as advised by them, as our approach is to minimise any risk to our residents, their visitors and staff.”