COVID vaccine: National ad campaign to be rolled out

A three-stage ad campaign will be aired to try and encourage Australians to to reassure the public about the safety of the COVID vaccine. Have your say here.

A national multimillion-dollar campaign blitz aimed at winning public confidence in the COVID vaccine is ready to be rolled out as early as this week as the federal government prepares to start vaccinating Australians.

Regarded as the most important public information campaign since that start of the pandemic, the print, television, digital and radio blitz will launch once the first of the vaccines to be used in Australia is signed off by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is expected within days.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the campaign has been divided into three phases, with the first designed to reassure the public about the safety of the vaccine.

With the vaccination program voluntary, the federal government wants to reassure the public about the safety of the vaccine to encourage as many people as possible to get a jab. They will target groups they believe have a lower propensity to get a vaccination, one of which is young women.

The so-called “assurance phase” will focus on explaining the approval process leading up to the vaccine rollout, including the role of Australian experts in ensuring its safety.

This phase is designed to alleviate any concerns about the vaccine generated through the reports of deaths in Norway along with social media scare-campaigns generated by the anti-vaxxer movement.

Overseas-based Matthew Moon has become one of the first Australians to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine due to be rolled out here in March. Picture: Supplied

Just who will be vaccinated first and why will be the focus of the second phase of the intended year-long campaign, with the final phase targeting the general population. After the sign-off, vaccine-makers Pfizer BioNTech will have around two weeks to ship the product to Australia before the TGA undertakes batch testing.

Quarantine, border and frontline healthcare workers will be the first to receive a jab with the States and Territories preparing to be ready to begin vaccinating from February 15 should they be given the greenlight.

A medical assistant prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Germany. Picture: Ina Fassbender/AFP

The government is hoping to vaccinate four million people by the end of March, including 500,000 aged and disability care residents and staff.

The first recipients will receive the Pfizer vaccine with about 80,000 doses issued a week with the majority of the general population to be given the AstraZeneca jab, of which more than 50 million doses will be manufactured locally.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the independent medical regulator was following every step to protect Australians and put safety above all else.

“Australians can be assured, safety is the number one priority of the Australian Government and our independent medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration,” he said.

“The TGA is a world leading medicines and vaccines regulator and is following the established and rigorous process to assess the safety, quality and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.”