US hopeful of pre-Christmas COVID jab, Australia still has long wait

But Australia has no direct pre-purchase deal with Moderna for its mRNA vaccine, which means months of waiting before the first COVID-19 jab.

While the US and Europe have bought hundreds of millions of doses of Moderna's vaccine, Australia signed direct deals with competitors Pfizer, Novavax and AstraZeneca.

Pfizer's mRNA vaccine looks promising but Novavax is months away from completing trials and AstraZeneca has hit a major speed bump.

The government has ordered 10 million doses of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine, enough to vaccinate 5 million people, due to arrive early 2021.

In addition, it has signed agreements to buy more than 3.8 million doses of the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine early next year and 40 million doses of Novavax's vaccine which should arrive some time in 2021.

To approve a vaccine in a shortened timeframe, the TGA must satisfy itself that the benefit of early approval "outweighs the uncertainty of things like the longevity of immunity and long-term safety follow-up" said Associate Professor Nicholas Wood, head of the NSW Immunisation Specialist Service.