Coronavirus Australia: COVID-19 vaccine campaign launched

The safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines will be splashed across Australia in an information campaign that kicks off today.

The safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines will be splashed across the nation as part of the federal government’s $24m advertising blitz.

The information campaign starting on Wednesday will include when, how and where Australians can get the free jab as the vaccines become available.

Priority groups such as the elderly, healthcare workers, quarantine and border staff will be among the first to get a dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

The campaign follows the jab gaining provisional approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

“This campaign will help every Australian to understand how the vaccine works and how it will keep them and their family safe,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

“I am confident, given Australia’s high vaccination coverage rates, that Australians will take up a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in equally high numbers.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt is urging Australians to get the vaccine to prevent serious illness from coronavirus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

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Mr Hunt said the information in the three-phase campaign was based on advice from independent medical experts.

The ads will reaffirm that COVID-19 vaccines have been put through Australia’s world-leading independent approvals process to ensure they are safe and effective.

They will also inform people about dosage requirements.

The campaign will run across platforms including television, radio, newspapers and social media.

Messaging will also be tailored for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the disability and multicultural communities following consultation with special committees.

Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan, said she wanted everyone to get the vaccine if they could.

“I encourage everyone get informed, be informed and make the decisions for yourself,” she told Today.

Professor McMillan said in the coming months a vaccine would be rolled out to the broader population, so she encouraged Australians to continue hand hygiene and social distancing to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in the population.

She said the government had not received advice about the use of a coronavirus vaccine for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

A man receives the Pfizer vaccine at a vaccination centre in England where the spread of COVID-19 is rampant. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC RN that the vaccine and its rollout would be critical to maintaining Australia’s economic recovery.
“The IMF just last night said the global economy was strengthening,” Mr Frydenberg said.

But opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the outlook also highlighted the substantial challenges of high and persistent unemployment and underemployment, the risk of labour market scaring and the “need to maintain support until a vaccine is broadly deployed”.

Delays to Pfizer vaccine deliveries across Europe was not expected to change the arrival dates for vaccine doses in Australia, according to government ministers.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the vaccine rollout would start in February.

He said Australia would also provide vaccines to Pacific Island nations.