Geektastic: Came across this in an article about the flu jab. Quite telling.

“In the first month of the rollout, to May 14, more than 425,700 people over 65 were immunised, according to the National Immunisation Register, but the Ministry of Health estimates the actual number is higher.

This is more than the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the three months since the programme started.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300309713/flu-jab-rolls-out-to-new-zealanders-under-65-after-monthlong-delay-in-schedule

Got mine booked in on Wednesday. $30 at my GP or $20 at chemist warehouse, so went the latter route.

This outcome is fairly predictable, and could well be considered optimal.

• Covid-19 vaccination program is very supply constrained we could eaisly ramp it up, but would just run our stockpile down to zero and need to pause untill the next shipment. While a little delayed, we will have abundant flu vaccines for this season (a record 2.4m doses on order)
• We have currently received shipments of 1.3m influenza vaccines vs cira 750k covid-19 vaccines.
• Distribution channels of influenza vaccines are mature (GP's, Pharmacies, workplace vaccination centers etc), They do this every year so have a fairly good handle on how to run the process.
• GP's and the likes have been told to "go nuts" and expedite the flu vaccine roll out as much as possible in order to increase the odds that two+ weeks will have passed when those same people are invited to get a covid-19 vaccine.
• Seems to be a deliberate decision not to yet involve GP's and pharmacies on mass in the covid-19 roll out, I assume to both keep their resources available for the flu roll out, and to keep them as a resource that can be quickly spun up when our large covid-19 vaccine shipments start landing in a month or two.
• The triage / priority tiers, the focus on not wasting doses, and the effort in encouraging those at high risk (border workers, medical front liners etc) would have slowed the covid-19 vaccine roll out. No such concern for the influenza vaccine simple inoculate everybody that one can. (however there are 4 different products for different age groups. Only the 65+ age one was available before today).

The good news is that the flu vaccine rate should spike now it is opened to all ages. Another 4 - 6 weeks should see the bulk of the flu jab rush tackled. And as soon as the covid-19 vaccine supply dictates (Big shipments from our 2nd order expected in a month or two), most of the resources that are currently doing flu vaccinations can be re-allocated to do Covid-19 vaccinations.