Australia won't rush Pfizer after homegrown vaccine canned

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that his government won't rush approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine because he wants people to have confidence in the product

His comments come as Australian researchers said they were abandoning their own potential vaccine because it produced false positive results to HIV tests.

Morrison said Australia was in a different position to Britain, which has given emergency approval to the Pfizer roll out, and the United States, where a government advisory panel has endorsed the Pfizer vaccine.

“We want to ensure that Australians — and I think all of us feel very strongly this way — have ... absolute full confidence that when it gets the tick, they can get the jab,” Morrison said.

“They can make that decision for themselves and for their families confidently,” he added.

Australia has 47 active COVID-19 cases, with 36 of those people in hospitals. The pandemic has claimed 908 lives in Australia.

Australia “has a front-row seat” observing the roll out in Britain and the United States and would learn from the overseas experiences, particularly through a data-sharing agreement with London, Morrison said.

The government expects the Australian regulator to approve the vaccine produced jointly by Pfizer and BioNTech by late January. The Australian roll out was expected to be underway by March.

Australia has an agreement for 10 million Pfizer doses and will have an option to buy more for its 26 million people if supplies allow.

Australian researchers announced Friday they had abandoned development of a potential vaccine because the false positive results to HIV tests undermined public confidence.

The University of Queensland state vaccine that was to be manufactured at...