Top doctors are urging Australians not to wait for their 'favourite vaccine' and instead get a Covid-19 jab as soon as possible.
Dr Nick Coatsworth said 'real world data' shows the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are both equivalent in terms of effectiveness against coronavirus.
AstraZeneca gives 92 per cent protection from hospitalisation or death, while Pfizer gives 96 per cent, which he called 'equivalent'.
The former Deputy Chief Medical Officer, who spend all of last year shaping Australia's national pandemic policies, said Australia's fear of the AstraZeneca inoculation has been a 'significant barrier' to getting Australians vaccinated.
Top doctors (Dr Nick Coatsworth, left, and Professor Tony Blakely, right) are urging Australians not to wait for their 'favourite vaccine' and instead get a Covid-19 jab as soon as possible
The Oxford University designed dose has been linked to extremely rare blood clotting in Australia and throughout the world - and in some cases even proved fatal.
Two women, aged 48 and 52, have died in Australia after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, prompting the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation to only recommend the British jab, which the federal government was relying on for the bulk of its rollout, to people over 60.
But last week, with four states and territories in lockdown after multiple outbreaks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison walked back the recommendation and said those wishing to receive the vaccine should speak to their doctor.
A registered Nurse administers the Pfizer vaccine to a client at the St Vincent's Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic on July 1 in Sydney
Locked down Sydneysiders are pictured in Rushcutters Bay Park on July 4 (pictured) with much of the nation still not vaccinated
'We have to, as a community, accept the reality that it is a tiny tiny risk,' Dr Coatsworth told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes.
'We are talking about one in a million deaths and tragically that has happened to two Australians.'
But he says the medical community is now 'much
