MELBOURNE, Australia—A clinical trials and pharmaceutical regulation affairs expert has urged Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to suspend the “provisional approval” status granted to COVID-19 vaccines and declared Australia’s drug adverse event reporting system “broken.” This comes after the TGA reported 135,978 cases of total adverse events following COVID-19 immunisations to Sept. 4. The TGA has also…

The government of Queensland has announced a Housing Summit to deal with several issues plaguing the state’s housing market following an interstate migration boom driven by lockdowns in Australia’s big southern cities. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said an initial roundtable on Sept. 16 will be held followed by the larger Summit in October. “Nothing is more…

The federal government should be scrutinised more over the rising number of COVID-19 deaths in aged care, an independent MP says. More than 3000 Australians have died with COVID-19 in aged care facilities this year, which is almost triple the number of deaths in the first two years of the pandemic. The aged care death…

Australian authorities have been told to rethink COVID-19 policies as the population is growing increasingly tired of health restrictions around the pandemic. New South Wales (NSW) Premier Dominic Perrottet told Sky News Australia that authorities need to scrap the mandatory isolation period for COVID-19. This comes just days after the National Cabinet agreed to reduce the…

The alternative union movement, the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS), will be organising one of the largest formal conferences to discuss the consequences of the lockdown policies on the medical profession in the country. AMPS is part of Red Union, an umbrella organisation for several newly established trade unions servicing teachers, nurses, police officers, and…

The Mayor of Australia’s iconic Blue Mountains has announced that he will ban the Australian Vaccination risks Network (AVN) from using public land “to disseminate dangerous misinformation about vaccinations.” “I believe any request by anti-vaccination groups to hold events in the Blue Mountains should be refused,” Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill said in a statement…

The Australian Labor government has scrapped the country’s troubled COVIDSafe mobile app, which was launched in a rush in April 2020 to help deal with the pandemic. Estimated to cost $21 million (US$14.61 million) of taxpayer funds, the app has been criticised for performance issues and for only identifying 17 close contacts, according to new…

More Australians are feeling lonelier now than before the COVID-19 pandemic, new research has found. Telstra’s Talking Loneliness report released on Friday found 27 percent of people experienced loneliness for the first time during the pandemic, while almost half of Australians still feel lonely because of COVID-19 lockdowns. “The pandemic has really disrupted our social…

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has called for a reduction in the seven-day isolation period adding that the winter influenza virus currently posed a bigger issue than COVID-19. “In many cases at the moment, the current strand of influenza is more severe than the current strands of COVID,” the premier told 2GB radio. He…

Health Minister Mark Butler says the government is monitoring the rise of COVID cases across the country closely, ahead of a snap national cabinet meeting next week. State and territory leaders will meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday as the government defends its decision to end the pandemic leave payments for workers needing…