The nation’s most senior health bureaucrat, chief medical officer Brendan Murphy, this week blamed Australia’s woeful vaccination rates of less than 4 million jabs on “sensationalist media reporting”. That’s only partly right. It’s part cop-out, too. There is much more to the country’s dismal vaccination rollout than lousy media stories. And a great deal of that sits with bureaucrats and government.
First, to sensationalist reporting. It’s one thing when the media – and social media – carry stories about a holistic hairdresser here and there refusing to allow vaccinated customers into the salon. Not to give them more notoriety, let’s just say hairdressers should stick to mixing bleach. And the media should do better.
It’s a much bigger failure when the media fails to report responsibly about a vaccine. Big scary headlines and inadequately short stories about blood clots have helped scare Australians from getting vaccinated.
Instead, every story about a rare blood clot caused by the AZ vaccine should include basic context: the number of blood clots that happen every day in Australia, the number of people who die from blood clots entirely unrelated to AZ, the side-effects from common prescription drugs that we breezily ignore, never even reading the slip of paper inside a box of contraceptives, for example. Ironically, this is the same group that appears to be most unwilling to get a Covid jab.
But to tweak an old adage, maybe we get the media we deserve. Much of the blind outrage in the media echoes the default responses of large sections of the community. Yell first. Think later. Or skip thinking altogether because the next outrage has landed.
Consider how many in the media and elsewhere went berserk when Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka stated the bleeding obvious. Her “people will die” comment received the royal treatment, rather than attention for her sensible words: “Covid will be part of the community. We will become sick with Covid and it won’t put us in hospital and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine.
“Some people may die, but it will be way smaller than with the flu. We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learned how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years, and we’ve got to learn how to live with this.”
We’re quick to mock business leaders as woke on the soft stuff and weak-kneed on big issues that affect the trajectory of the country. On behalf of some Australians, thank you, Ms Hrdlicka. Right now, we need a hundred more leaders like you because there’s not much straight talking coming out of Canberra.
Whereas our political leaders – and bureaucrats – should be educating the public about the reality of living with Covid, Scott Morrison swung low, deriding the business leader for being insensitive. Australians don’t need a therapist to worry about their feelings. They need a leader. Better to have a country where more people can face reality than be offended by it.
If Hrdlicka’s comments are too bracing for us, then we are trapped in a fool’s paradise with a bigger problem than the coronavirus.
The crux of Australia’s vaccination hesitancy sits closer to Murphy and Morrison than they care to admit. Compare the vaccination innovation of other countries. In February, Tel Aviv handed out free pizza, hummus and knafeh desserts to those getting their first shot. A mobile vaccination station offered a shot-for-a-shot outside a nightclub to encourage younger Israelis to get vaccinated. This month, Ohio started a Vax-a-Million for the vaccinated and engaged with the young by offering a chance to win a full scholarship to Ohio State University. “I am so excited, said one Ohio resident. “I know it’s a long shot.” Boom. Boom. All of these programs are commissioned by bureaucrats and governments around the world determined to get their people vaccinated. Many countries have seriously clever advertising campaigns, too. In Australia, there’s nothing serious or clever, and that is a dereliction of duty by those running the country.
After early supply problems here, the government no longer has an excuse for its go-slow mode. Witness Greg Hunt effectively telling older Australians last week that they should get vaccinated but that they can wait for Pfizer later in the year. That’s one confusing message from a Health Minister who should know better.
It’s curious too that Hunt released information about Pfizer doses he expects will arrive in the country in October, but the government still refuses to set a basic threshold of vaccinations for reopening borders for the vaccinated. Families are separated. Businesses can’t find workers. Universities are struggling. This is not secret government business. It’s our business. From the PM down – they all work for us. While the rest of the world is opening up, there is not a hint of a plan here.
Blaming the media for vaccine hesitancy is easy. If bureaucrats and ministers, including the PM, dealt better with matters they can control – advertising campaigns, transparency, ambitious targets, clear government messaging, innovative vaccination programs for different demographics, we might be in a better position to face Covid cases when they arrive.
The real question is why the Morrison government is not doing more. Voters are accustomed to base politics driving government decisions. But this is bigger than deciding which footy field to upgrade, or even which cohort of taxpayers get a little tax cut.
Those who watch Morrison closely are entitled to worry that he is charting a political course to re-election by maintaining a pandemic status quo. If the country were vaccinated in fuller numbers, the PM would have to make some big decisions about borders and quarantine. It is politically easier to wait, effectively cashing in on vaccine hesitancy.
The mantra of acting only when it’s safe to do so has become a weapon to avoid accountability. Is it beyond the wit of health bureaucrats to map out a path, a road map, to give Australians hope? If that’s beyond their skill set, they should be replaced with those who can. If health bureaucrats are being stifled as part of a political re-election campaign, they should resign to preserve their honour.
Hard issues, to be sure, but given that Labor is so feeble, unable to hold the government to account, the media becomes even more important.
It is unfortunate if Morrison’s political constituency comprises the fearful and the complacent. Where does that leave those Australians who have a better grip on the need to live with COVID?
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