Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk‘s spectacular vaccine claim on ABC’s 7.30

A war of words has erupted between governments and the Queensland Premier has issued a fiery TV reply to the Prime Minister.

After a day that has seen open warfare break out between the state and federal governments, the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she doesn’t want one million people in her state “put at risk” by the AstraZeneca vaccine.

More than 4.2 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered in Australia — of those, 64 have had an adverse reaction, while two have died.

The vaccine has been proven to be highly effective in reducing the risk of serious illness and deaths from coronavirus, even with the new strains that are emerging, and is helping nations like the UK break the trend between cases and deaths.

However, the vaccine has become highly politicised in Australia and Wednesday took the ugly dogfight over AstraZeneca to a whole new level.

RELATED: ‘Selfish’ Millennials step up to save Aus

RELATED: Why millions of Aussies are so confused

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

State Premiers came out swinging against the Prime Minister, and the federal government retaliated with a brutal press conference from the Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews.

The strongest backlash came from Queensland, with Ms Palaszczuk blasting Mr Morrison’s decision to open up the vaccine to all adults, claiming there had been no national cabinet decision about providing it to people under 40.

In an interview with 7.30 last night she doubled down — saying were at stake.

“We could see the situation where a young person or young people under the age of 40 lose their from a vaccine when they would be basically not getting very ill or dying from covid if they were susceptible to that,” she said.

“At the end of the day, I have got over 1 million young people aged between 20 and 40 in my state and I don’t want them put at risk.”

She then falsely claimed that the UK was refusing to offer AstraZeneca to under 40s.

The advice on AstraZeneca in the UK is that anyone aged under 40 should be offered an alternative vaccine, but if no alternatives are available it is better to have it than to delay getting vaccinated.

"It was quite extraordinary to hear the Prime Minister say the other night after national cabinet that a decision had been made to give AstraZeneca to people under 40. There was no such decision taken at national cabinet." - Qld Premier @AnnastaciaMP. #abc730#auspolpic.twitter.com/gI4HFNwXUy

— abc730 (@abc730) June 30, 2021

She said the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday had taken her by surprise.

“It was extraordinary to hear the Prime Minister say the other night after national cabinet that a decision has been made to give AstraZeneca to people under 40,” she said.

“There was no such decision taken at national cabinet. We merely noted that the Commonwealth will be giving an indemnity to GPs. So I was very concerned.

“I don’t want people giving out incorrect advice that could put people’s lives in danger.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan was among those backing Queensland, saying that people under 40 shouldn’t get AstraZeneca.

“The advice is they shouldn’t,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“I can only advise what we have been advised by ATAGI, they say it shouldn’t happen,” he said.

“There is a different approach by the Commonwealth to that advice. With health advice, lots of doctors give you different advice at different points in time.

“That is the advice we have and that is the national advice from the immunisation experts. Clearly, the Commonwealth has taken a different approach.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison as he made the vaccine announcement on Monday night.

Labor’s health spokesperson Mark Butler said he backed Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young‘s health advice over the Prime Minister, telling the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas that “Scott Morrison inserting himself into expert health advice has been a terrible, terrible decision on his part”.

“It’s made what was already a pretty chaotic vaccine rollout that saw us languishing in last place in the OECD that much worse.

“The message he sent to Australia the other night was that if you want a vaccine as a younger person, you have to go and get AstraZeneca and I think that was an appalling message for him to give as the Prime Minister of our country.”

Mixed messages confusing Australians

Meanwhile an expert has said younger Australians are receiving mixed messages over the AstraZeneca vaccine and is holding both the federal and state governments responsible.

Jane Halton, co-chair COVAX initiative and chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said it was “time for some very simple messaging for people so they understand what’s going on”, as states argue with the PM over the AstraZeneca jab.

Earlier this week Mr Morrison said national cabinet had agreed on a new no-fault indemnity scheme for GPs to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australians under the age of 40, who are willing to accept the extremely rare blood clot risk after discussions with a GP.

In a growing surge of backlash, some Australian state health officers have warned against it because of the risk of the clotting condition.

“I do not want under-40s to get AstraZeneca because they are at increased risk of getting the rare clotting syndrome,” chief health officer Jeannette Young said.

“We’ve seen up to 49 deaths in the UK from that syndrome. I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got covid, probably wouldn’t die.”

The AstraZeneca vaccine.

In a fiery response, Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews took the gloves off, attacking Queensland for its response.

“What Premier Palaszczuk and her deputy Steven Miles are doing is trying to create a distraction from their own quarantine failures,” she said.

Ms Holton, who was picked by the federal government to review quarantine last year, explained that the AstraZeneca vaccine is registered for use in any one over the age of 18 and that the “TGA has not changed this registration”.

“We know it’s been used successfully in the UK and we can see the impact of that,” she said, but agreed with health officer Jeanette Young claiming in younger people, “there is a slightly elevated risk of this clotting issue.

“Particularly in that young cohort, we need to speak about it clearly”.

“We also know the risk as you get older, particularly from covid, is much higher than the vaccine.

“I think certainly in terms of people having confidence in our rollout, it is quite problematic. I also think it would be much better if we could get all the states and territories and the Commonwealth all lined up on the rollout.”

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation Chair Jane Halton. Picture: Mick Tsikas