Brendan Murphy blames the media for Australia’s slow vaccine rollout

According to the Australian health chief Brendan Murphy, everyone is to blame for the country’s slow vaccine rollout — except the government, writes James Morrow.

Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong, will.

Brendan Murphy’s Law: And when it does, blame it on the media.

Yes, that’s right.

According to the Australian health chief, the reason the nation’s vaccine program has been proceeding at a breakneck dribble is because … the media.

Speaking to ABC’s Four Corners Monday, Dr Murphy said, “I think the biggest impact on hesitancy is, frankly, sensationalist media reporting.”

Well, no doubt that there have been some in the press who have been too quick to punch the panic button.

The ABC’s own Dr Norman Swan, who before the pandemic was best known as the in-house medico on The Biggest Loser, has indeed admitted that “I probably did cause some vaccine hesitancy.”

Professor Brendan Murphy during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But perhaps Dr Murphy – and indeed the rest of the government – should have a look at themselves when it comes to confusing messages about the jab.

It was only last week that Health Minister Greg Hunt essentially told Australians unsure about AstraZeneca that if they held their horses, there’d be Pfizer and Moderna jabs for them later in the year.

It was the government’s own Technical Advisory Group that handed down the advice to pull the AstraZeneca jab from under-50s because of a risk of blood clots far, far smaller than that which comes being a smoker, taking hormonal birth control pills, or actually getting Covid.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant speaks to the media at a press conference at a mass COVID-19 vaccination hub in Sydney Olympic Park. Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

At the start of the year, when other nations were ramping up their vaccine programs (and when Sydney, recall, was on the verge of a lockdown), Scott Morrison slow-walked our own rollout, saying we had to wait for the TGA since we weren’t in an “emergency situation”.

And when it comes to not giving people a reason to get vaccinated, statements from the prime minister on down that even if 100% of us were jabbed, that’s no guarantee of a travel bubble extending further than Auckland.

Minister for Health Greg Hunt delivers a COVID-19 update at Parliament House, Canberra. Photo: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Way to inspire confidence.

And give us a reason to get vaccinated in a country.

Contrast this with the “blitz spirit” seen in Great Britain, which has given nearly 60 million jabs and where daily Covid deaths are now routinely lower than those from the ‘flu.

There, officials are getting ready to open up to the world – as is much of the EU, to those who have had an approved vaccine.

Here, the government seems to have fallen into taking a page from the panicky premiers’ playbook: Having seen the benefits reaped by Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan at the ballot box in keeping Australians out, Josh Frydenberg’s recent budget is also looking to cash in on all the money spent at home by keeping Australians in.

If officials like Dr Murphy want Australians to get vaccinated – and let’s be clear, everyone who can should – they should stop blaming the messenger, and get a lot clearer about their message.