I dips me lid, Mick. You are a master of the language.
No, they likely did not [take cost of the vaccines into account]. When the Australian government placed its order for AstraZeneca nobody knew what the delivered cost of any of the vaccines was going to be.
Oh yes they likely did, because the TGA takes cost effectiveness into account and there's a difference between 'delivered cost' and the 'costs of delivery'. The logistical challenges - and the corresponding disparity in costs - between getting Pfizer into arms compared with getting AZ into arms was known, even if a dose cost the same ex-factory.
Wrong measure of efficacy!
Say what? I just quoted from the UNSW School of Population Health:
Clinical trials for both vaccines have shown they’re broadly safe.
In terms of efficacy, the Pfizer vaccine protects 94.5% of people from developing COVID.
The AstraZeneca shot protects 70% of people on average — still pretty good and on par with the protection given by a flu vaccine in a good year.
That article went on to note the logistical disadvantages of Pfizer v AZ and said:
[P]eople don’t generally judge whether they’ll receive a vaccine based on its effectiveness alone. We know from talking to the community that many factors influence motivation, especially perceived risk and severity of infection, and confidence in the safety of the vaccine.
And therein lies the rub. The magic words "perceived" and "safety" (coincidentally, the way aviation is regulated in Australia).
Since that article was written, there have been the deaths through blood clotting after AZ jabs and the changing 'goal posts' around age groups. (Who knew that viruses discriminate on the basis of neat 10 year age groups?)
But let's assume the UNSW School of Population Health used "the wrong measure of efficacy" and we can produce solid gold, unassailable data now, to show that the risks mitigated by getting, and the rewards of everyone getting, an AZ jab far outweigh the consequences of not. The problem is that the perception of many in the population is that Pfizer is better and safer than AZ. And, as Scotty from Marketing knows better than just about everyone else on the planet, in politics (as with aviation safety), perception is reality.
Best to get sh*t tonnes of Pfizer inbound, ASAP.