Project host Lisa Wilkinson shares how Aussies can SKIP the vaccine queue and get a Covid jab asap

Channel Ten star Lisa Wilkinson has explained to viewers how you can cleverly skip the vaccination queue and get a Covid-19 jab – even if you’re not yet eligible.

The Project host said her husband, Peter FitzSimons, 59, found a way to get the AstraZeneca vaccine 12 weeks ago, despite not technically being eligible for the jab.

He simply phoned his local GP and asked to be on a standby list so that no inoculations are wasted if people don’t make their appointment – something anyone can seemingly do.

Similar savvy people in Britain and the US also took advantage of surplus supplies during their rollout, with those not yet eligible being text at the last minute to let them know a jab was going spare. 

‘My husband actually had his jab 12 weeks ago even though he didn’t fall into the category,’ Wilkinson said.

‘He rang the local GP and said, “If anybody doesn’t turn up for an appointment and you will throw an AstraZeneca shot away, just give me a call”.’

Australia’s medicines watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, does not recommend the AstraZeneca inoculation for those under 60 due to the rare chance of blood clotting.

But many thousands of people of all ages have been given the jab overseas with very few instances of clots or other side effects. 

At this stage Covid jabs are available to anyone over the age of 40 in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and other states.

All ages are eligible to get the jab in the Northern Territory.

But even when the rollout was limited to frontline workers, quarantine staff and older Australia, doctors, who may have to throw away a vaccine dose because somebody has not turned up for an appointment, still have the discretion to administer the shot to another member of the public.

Wilkinson, 61, who received her second dose of AstraZeneca on Tuesday, encouraged everyone to get vaccinated as soon as they can.

The Project host (pictured) received her second dose of the Covid vaccine on Tuesday

‘I was a little bit nervous because you do see stuff about the clots but I just figured, against the possibility of me getting Covid, particularly this Delta variant and dying from it, I knew which one I was going to take,’ she said. 

Strategic health policy expert Bill Bowtell at the University of NSW, told the panel the current outbreak which has wreaked havoc on Sydney with a total of 36 infections linked to the Bondi cluster, could have easily been avoided.

The soaring cluster was sparked by an unvaccinated airport driver in his 60s who was eligible for the vaccine but did not get vaccinated.

It’s suspected he contracted the virus after ferrying infected international flight crew to Sydney Airport.

Wilkinson (pictured on The Project) said her husband simply phoned his local GP and asked to be on a standby list so that no inoculations are wasted – something anyone can do

‘This came about because of yet another breach of quarantine arrangements run by NSW Health at Sydney Airport and the guidelines that allowed this case into the community have still not been changed, both in relation to wearing proper masks and PPE, and vaccinating the front line staff, in this case a driver,’ Prof Bowtell said.

‘So those guidelines have got to be changed. We cannot do this business as usual. Tonight in NSW, Australia, about only 5 per cent of people are fully vaccinated.

‘That’s another problem because the delta variant is spreading in a largely unvaccinated population.

‘It is very different tonight in Israel where 57 per cent are fully vaccinated or in the US and UK where 45 per cent fully vaccinated.’