Covid vaccine stuff-up draws apology from Premier

Locked-down Queenslanders have received an apology from the Premier over her government’s hospital vaccine stuff-up as she doubles down on her support for the chief health officer following a trainwreck press conference.

Locked-down Queenslanders have received an apology from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk over her government’s hospital vaccine stuff-up as it now works to mandate jabs for health staff, FIFO workers and airline crews.

Ms Palaszczuk was yesterday at pains to describe her government as “pro-vaccination” after Wednesday’s trainwreck press conference, criticised by politicians and medical experts for inflammatory messaging around AstraZeneca and the vaccination rollout.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has apologised for the Prince Charles Hospital stuff-up. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Vowing to vaccinate more staff to prevent further escape, the government wrote to the five hospitals treating infectious patients - Cairns, Sunshine Coast University, Gold Coast, RBWH and the Prince Charles - suggesting mandatory vaccination would be extended to all hospital staff.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young called for all airport staff to immediately come forward for preferential jabs after one of four new cases was a woman working airline check-in.

A lack of Pfizer supply will be raised at today’s National Cabinet following extraordinary claims the state will run out of its supply mid-next week if no more is sent, worrying people who have appointments booked.

The mandatory vaccination of FIFO workers and airline crew will also be discussed, following clusters associated with both types of worker this week.

But all Queensland quarantine facility workers are now protected, with new rules requiring them to prove they have had at least one vaccination shot to work under rules that began on June 15.

It came as Ms Palaszczuk did what Health Minister Yvette D’Ath would not do a day earlier and apologised to the 4 million Queenslanders in lockdown because of the Prince Charles case.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young doesn’t want under 40-year-olds to get the AstraZeneca jab. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“I am more than happy to apologise,” she said.

“No one wants to see this happen but everyone knows, our systems are stretched.”

It came as the federal government released new vaccination rates by age that revealed the proportion of fully vaccinated 45-49 year olds (12 per cent) is more than double those aged 65-69 (5.7 per cent).

A total of 7.9 per cent of the Australian population aged over 16 have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of June 30.

It can also be revealed 10,612 Queenslanders under 40 have opted to get AstraZeneca since official health advice around the jab first changed on April 9.

Ms Palaszczuk repeatedly told the press conference she wanted people to get vaccinated but backed Dr Young’s expertise, who doubled down on comments made Wednesday around not wanting under 40-year-olds to get the AstraZeneca jab.

“I’ve said this on several occasions for the majority of people to get vaccinated,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We are pro-vaccination.”

But she was again left red faced when called on to explain a Tweet she sent that no one under the age of 40 was allowed to get AstraZeneca in the UK.

A reporter questioned the Wednesday tweet in which Ms Palaszczuk said: “Even the UK Government won’t allow their under 40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

The Premier later tweeted the source of that assertion, which was a BBC article that said under 40s would be offered an alternative to AstraZeneca but that it would still be used for some people because it was easier to transport.

Meanwhile, the AMA and Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union both came out to back mandatory vaccination of all workers connected to the five hospitals where Covid patients are treated, saying the changing virility of the virus meant it was not just people with direct patient contact who were at risk anymore.

QNMU secretary Beth Mohle said the union was committed to working through the issues with the government and suggested people who could not be vaccinated for health reasons might be redeployed to nearby hospitals not dealing with Covid patients.

Asked what would happen if health workers refused the jab, the Premier said: “We’re going to have a long conversation with them because it’s just so important that people get vaccinated and, like I said, I want to see a situation where the majority of Queenslanders get vaccinated.”

LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates said QH should change rosters if staff didn’t want the vaccine.

“There should have been a roster (at Prince Charles) that actually said which staff had their first vaccination, who had their second vaccination and who haven’t and then that would be up to the individual nurse to determine whether they wanted to be vaccinated,” she said.

“But from a safety perspective you would be rostering on your staff who had actually been vaccinated.”

The push to vaccinate more high-risk people came as Mater Health director of infectious disease Dr Paul Griffin was appointed to lead an independent investigation into why the receptionist working just outside the Prince Charles Covid ward wasn’t inoculated, as required by a public health directive.

“He will specifically be looking at how it came to be that this individual was working where they were unvaccinated,” the Health Minister said.

“In doing that, he will also be looking at the systems that are in place at that hospital to determine who is a worker that must be vaccinated to work in those areas, and who deems that area as being a mandatory vaccination area or not.”

But it would be “some time” before the woman could be investigated because she is being treated in hospital, Ms D’Ath said.