Haroon Iqbal's father lives in Pakistan and has been double vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine, but in Australia, where his son lives, he's not recognised as fully vaccinated as he’s over 60.
BBIBP-CorV is a Chinese vaccine, manufactured by Sinopharm, that has been approved by 74 countries. But it's the only vaccine that Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has applied an age condition to, with it only recognised for people aged 18-60.
For Mr Iqbal’s father, that means he’s considered unvaccinated by Australia and would be subject to international travel caps if he tried to enter Australia and would have to undergo 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival at a cost of about $3,000.
“My father is 75 and my mum is 57, so it's a really tough situation for me,” Mr Iqbal said.
“I can’t just ask just one parent to come over, I want them to come together.”
Mr Iqbal's family live in the city of Faisalabad in the eastern province of Punjab. Pakistan has largely relied on Chinese-made vaccines, including those made by Sinopharm and Sinovac, with only smaller supplies of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines available.
Haroon Iqbal is calling for the government to recogise the Sinopharm vaccine for those aged over 60 with the addition of a Pfizer booster shot. Source: Supplied
When the Australian Government announced parents would now be considered immediate family in October, Mr Iqbal said he was “jumping for joy” after two years apart from his family.
The change meant parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents could travel to Australia despite the international border closures, once granted an exemption.
Mr Iqbal’s excitement grew when he saw an update from the TGA saying the Sinopharm vaccine had been added to the list of approved vaccines - until he saw the age limit.
“I called my dad straight away … but after I finished talking to him, I actually read the whole update,” he said.
“I was devastated and heartbroken.”
Mr Iqbal, an Australian citizen who currently lives on the Gold Coast, has started a petition asking the Australian Government to recognise the Sinopharm vaccine for over 60s, or for them to recognise two doses of the vaccine with the addition of a Pfizer booster shot as being fully vaccinated.
Mr Iqbal with his family. Source: Supplied
The petition has had more than 2,900 signatures since it was started a month ago.
The Department of Health says it is following advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) that suggests those who are not recognised as fully-vaccinated can enter Australia but will need to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine.
A Department of Health spokesperson said those “who’ve received a first dose or full course of a COVID-19 vaccine” that is not approved by the TGA should be offered two doses of a TGA-approved vaccine to be fully vaccinated.
ATAGI’s current view is that boosters are not required to meet the definition of fully vaccinated “as the standard primary course of two doses - with the exception of the Janssen vaccine (Netherlands), which only requires one dose - are sufficient to meet the definition of fully vaccinated.”
Grandparents and grandchildren separated
Through his petition, Mr Iqbal met Emilio Barbieri, an Australian citizen living in Brisbane, whose mother in Argentina is facing a similar dilemma.
Mr Barbieri last saw his mother in 2019, and he now has a one-year-old daughter who his mother has never met.
“It’s my mum’s first granddaughter, so it would mean everything for her to meet her,” he said.
Emilio Barbieri and his mother (left), and Haroon Iqbal (right). Source: Supplied
Mr Barbieri's 64-year-old mother has had two doses of Sinopharm and an AstraZeneca booster.
“In Argentina, you don't have the chance to choose what vaccine you get. You literally get whatever they give you,” Mr Barbieri said.
“It's not that you can go ask, ‘Oh, can I have two shots of AstraZeneca, so I can go to Australia?’”
Under Queensland’s current border restrictions, both Mr Iqbal and Mr Barbieri’s parents count as unvaccinated and would have to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine. And that’s if they were able to get a seat on a plane, with their parents also subjected to international travel caps.
“My mum would be coming for a month-and-a-half ... and then spending half of the time in quarantine. It doesn't make sense,” Mr Barbieri said.
“We are talking about a person who had two vaccines, a booster, and will come with a negative PCR [test]. And they will do more tests here when she arrives.”
“She’d do anything to come but the mental health and cost issues [are a barrier].”
It’s not just those over 60 who’ve been vaccinated with Sinopharm who are facing deterrents to entering Australia.
Emilio Barbieri with his partner and daughter. Source: Supplied
Santiago Carol was born in Argentina and lives in Torquay, southwest of Melbourne. His mother was vaccinated with the Sputnik vaccine in Argentina, which is not recognised by the TGA.
“My mother had her first those of Sputnik V and then she had to wait for over three months because they couldn't get enough second doses to give to people,” he said.
“My dad received AstraZeneca. They just received the vaccine that they offered you without complaining or hesitating.”
With a two-year-old daughter, Delfina, and a baby on the way, Mr Carol’s Victorian-based family is unable to travel to visit his family in Argentina.
He also sees hotel quarantine - which costs thousands of dollars - as a “waste of money” and a challenge for his parents due to their age and the flight duration, which with stopovers can take between 24 and 48 hours.
His parents last saw their granddaughter when she was eight months old when the family spent two weeks in Argentina.
Santiago Carol is an Australian citizen whose parents live in Argentina. Source: Supplied
“She’s had very little time with them, and doing Zoom calls or video conferences just doesn't work with a two-year-old,” Mr Carol said.
“She doesn't think they're real. This morning, actually, she said that her family is only me, my wife, the dog, and my wife's mother.
“I'm worried about that - I want [my parents] to be part of it, too.”
“I’m teaching my daughter Spanish. I'm the only Spanish-speaking person that she has around,” he said.
“How much longer am I going to be waiting? ... It's ridiculous.”
'Poor' communication on borders
Rosemary Acutt is a solicitor at Queensland Migration Practice.
She said she has been pleased with the government’s speediness in granting travel exemptions for parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents but said the varying border restrictions in each state have been communicated “very poorly”, sparking anxiety and confusion among travellers who are becoming “fatigued” with the situation.
Unvaccinated passenger caps are being managed in a similar way to the broader passenger cap system that has been in place since July 2020, in which states set their own hotel quarantine limits.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison while a specific date had not been set for a return for overseas tourists, he indicated it could come soon. Source: SOPA Image
New South Wales is currently accepting 210 unvaccinated passengers a week, and Victoria 250.
Queensland continues to impose strict caps on overseas arrivals, regardless of vaccination status, with its cap on total international arrivals at 500 people a week.
International travel caps for those not recognised as vaccinated and the cost of complying with Australia’s current COVID-19 restrictions have also fuelled frustration, Mr Acutt said.
“With Australia closing borders and international travel caps, it wasn't viable for companies to be flying so a lot of the routes that we have to Australia prior to the pandemic disappeared, and they're only just now starting to open back up again.”
“Until there's some sort of uniform approach and more flights coming in greater numbers, it's going to be still very difficult to come and very expensive as well in the short-term future.”
Ms Acutt said all signs point to COVID-19 being with us for some time, and so with Australia’s high vaccination rates she’d like to see a move away from hotel quarantine.
“Perhaps now we can have something more than just hotel quarantine so that we can bring down some of the costs whenever we need places available,”
“I think that would be a really sensible solution that really every state territory needs to be looking at.”
Why are some vaccines not recognised by Australia?
TGA recognised COVID-19 vaccinations include Comirnaty (Pfizer), Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca), Covishield (AstraZeneca), Spikevax (Moderna), Takeda (Moderna), Janssen-Cilag (Johnson & Johnson), Coronavac (Sinovac). BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm - for 60 years old and under) and Covaxin (Bharat Biotech).
When it comes to vaccines such as Sinopharm (China) and Sputnik (Russia), the Department of Health said decisions to approve them or not are heavily considered.
A Department of Health spokesperson said the Sinopharm vaccine does not provide the same level of protection as COVID-19 vaccines administered in Australia.
But they said the TGA “took the view that this could be acceptable in a younger population in whom the overall risk of severe disease or hospitalisation from COVID-19 was inherently lower.”
“It is also the case that the protective efficacy of BBIBP-CorV [Sinopharm] is not well established in older people, which is an additional concern,” they said.
Dr Emily Edwards, a research fellow in the Department of Immunology at Monash University, said Sinopharm has lower protection against symptomatic infection than other COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in Australia.
NSW recorded 1360 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. Source: AAP
"Sinopharm has about 65 per cent protection compared to about 80-90 per cent with our current vaccines, which are the Pfizer, the AstraZeneca, and the Moderna."
"On top of that, unfortunately, there is no information about how it protects from hospitalisation."
"For those reasons, it hasn't been approved [for those over 60] ... Hospitalisation information is a key metric of whether that vaccine has good efficacy."
Dr Edwards said that while the Sputnik vaccine has great data regarding its efficacy, information about the vaccine comes from a single study.
"The Sputnik vaccine has got really great data showing that symptomatic infection protection is 92 per cent and for hospitalisation, it's 100 per cent," Dr Edwards said.
"But this is only one study. Until multiple studies can show the consistency of that information, there's not going to be an approval of that vaccine."
Meanwhile, ATAGI is continuing to assess data regarding the Sinopharm vaccine.
“As noted, the limited effectiveness of BBIBP-CorV in older people may require booster or additional vaccinations where it has been deployed in this age group,” an ATAGI spokesperson said.
There is “insufficient data and information” available to adequately demonstrate the protection offered by the Sputnik V and Sputnik Light vaccines, they said.
“As such, the TGA has not recognised these vaccines at this stage.”
“The TGA continues to actively engage with international regulatory counterparts and Ministries of Health, including the Russian Ministry of Health and is hopeful of gaining access to data in the near future that may allow recognition of Sputnik V and Sputnik Light.
“To date, the vaccines approved and recognised by the TGA account for eight of the 10 most used vaccines globally, including those used within our region.”
