Highlights
- The Morrison Government called on a former Labor prime minister to promote the message that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe
- Phase 1b begins on the 22nd of March
- Federal government says it will soon deliver more than half a million COVID-19 vaccines every week in the next phase of its vaccination rollout.
Julia Gillard joined federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy as they received the AstraZeneca vaccine at a Melbourne clinic
"Me being here today is a visible representation that no matter what side of politics you barrack for, no matter whom you intend to vote for, there is a united message. That message is please get the vaccine. And then particularly to Australian women can I say, please get the vaccine"
Ms Gillard urged Australians to get their information from reliable sources such as the Australian government or health providers and not rely on social media.
"Those people on social media are not the ones to look to when you are trying to work out what to do about the vaccine. You do need to be looking at the health lines like the Australian government information and make sure that what you are getting is from scientists, not social media influencers."
Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia's Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly were among the first to be vaccinated with the Pfizer jab.
The former Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, insisted the AstraZeneca vaccine is just as effective as the Pfizer one.
"They are both top-notch vaccines. This AstraZeneca vaccine that we have all had today, and it didn't hurt me either, this is going to be a workhorse, because this is the vaccine that we are making here in Australia, and we will be rolling out a lot of this vaccine in the coming weeks. Most of the Australian population will get this. Some have got Pfizer, many will continue to get Pfizer. But there is nothing to distinguish between the two of them. The challenge for us is to get the vaccine uptake as great as possible and as quickly as possible."
Health Minister Greg Hunt hopes more than 4,500 general practice clinics will participate in the next phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Elderly Australians and those with underlying conditions will be the first priority when phase 1b begins on the 22nd of March with more than 1000 GP clinics initially involved.
But the Australian Medical Association's National President, Doctor Omar Khorshid, says the deadline of the end of October to vaccinate all Australians is not realistic.
"There's only a million doses a week being produced and, if you do the simple maths, it's pretty hard to get everybody through their two doses three months apart by the end of October. But, at the end of the day, we've got time. We've done and extraordinary job here in Australia of protecting our population, our border will remain shut until the government feels it's safe to open them and that means we can roll this vaccination program out carefully at the appropriate pace, there's no rush"
