Deputy Premier Steven Miles vindicated by Pfizer move to vaccinate children under 11

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the Prime Minister and his colleagues have ‘egg on their face’ after a recent vaccine development.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the Morrison government has “egg on their face” after the United States moved closer to vaccinating children aged between five and 11.

In early September, Annastacia Palaszczuk was ridiculed by the Prime Minister and senior cabinet members after she raised concerns about the need to vaccinate the younger population.

“Unless there is an answer on how these young people are going to be vaccinated, you are putting this most vulnerable population at risk,” she told state parliament at the time.

“You open up this state and you let the virus in here, every child under 12 is vulnerable.”

The comments infuriated Canberra, who interpreted the demand as the Premier creating another hurdle to ensure state borders remained closed.

The Prime Minister has egg on his face, said Steven Miles. Picture: Gary Ramage / NCA NewsWire

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accused Ms Palaszczuk of “scaremongering”, while Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the comments were a “desperate denial of reality” and “not based on the medical advice”.

“The medical advice is that we should vaccinate people aged 12 to 15 – which we’re doing,” Mr Frydenberg said.

But this week, Pfizer officially asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the vaccine to those aged five to 11 as the pandemic rages among the young.

UPDATE: We and @BioNTech_Group officially submitted our request to @US_FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of our #COVID19 vaccine in children 5 to <12. pic.twitter.com/72Z2HXlkOx

— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) October 7, 2021

Nearly 850,000 infections were confirmed in US children in the past four weeks, with many experts declaring jabs for the young was the key to controlling the health crisis.

Mr Miles said the recent views vindicated the concerns of the Premier and again demanded the federal government vaccinate children.

“The Prime Minister and Health Minister Greg Hunt have egg on their face over this one,” the Deputy Premier told reporters on Friday.

Mr Miles called on the federal government to vaccinate younger children. Picture: John Gass / NCA NewsWire

“Only a few weeks ago, we were saying wouldn’t it be great if children could get vaccinated and they mocked us. They laughed. They laughed at us. They said no country in the world was thinking about doing that.

“Well, now we find the US is expediting emergency approvals to vaccinate young people. What we’ve said is, once we reach those vaccination thresholds of people over 16, that still leaves a significant proportion of the population unvaccinated.

“And so I think as soon as is safe and possible, and there is sufficient supply, the federal government really should pursue vaccinating younger people.”

Originally published as Deputy Premier Steven Miles vindicated by Pfizer move to vaccinate children under 11