First shot in final Covid battle

Scott Morrison has embraced the ‘big game-changer’ of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, declaring it to be a turning point in ­containing the virus and restoring prosperity and wellbeing.

Scott Morrison looks on as Jane Malysiak, 84, receives the first COVID vaccination in Sydney on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Scott Morrison has embraced the “big game-changer” of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, declaring it to be a turning point in ­containing the virus and restoring the prosperity and wellbeing of Australians.

More than 60,000 frontline medical staff, quarantine workers and aged-care residents will be vaccinated this week to kick-start the historic drive to immunise most of the adult population by October.

Business sought assurances from the federal government that the program would avert further border closures by the states and territories at a crippling cost to the economy.

The Prime Minister rolled up his sleeve on Sunday to become one of the first to receive the Pfizer shot to boost public confidence in the newly arrived vaccines.

Describing them as safe and important, Mr Morrison urged people to “join us on this Australian path” out of the pandemic.

“This changes how we manage the risk of COVID,” he said. “Today is the beginning of a big game-changer, there’s no doubt about that.

“And its successful rollout will only further reduce the risk, and when you reduce the risk, then ­obviously you do not need more blunt and extreme measures in order to deal with COVID.”

The government’s hopes of avoiding additional lockdowns were boosted when Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young — a hawk on border controls — said vaccines reduced the risk of further outbreaks and would “change things”.

But federal Health Minister Greg Hunt would not be drawn on whether the jab should be made compulsory for those in close contact with at-risk groups such as nursing home residents, despite calls for this to be mandated.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the rollout would speed the ­recovery. “It’s hugely important to getting that momentum that has built up in the economy to stay,” she told Sky News. “What I think has to happen, though … is that we have to make sure that as we roll it out we are releasing more and more of the economy … and that we are working towards that ­nationally consistent system for how you manage local lockdowns, local outbreaks.”

With Mr Morrison at her side, Jane Malysiak, 84, of Sydney, ­became the first Australian to be vaccinated here and said she was overwhelmed by the attention. “I’m happy to receive it,” she said after the first of two Pfizer shots.

When it came to his turn, the Prime Minister said: “I’m ready to go, just like the country.”

Under the government’s ambitious timetable, more than 800,000 people a week will be ­inoculated once the program ramps up next month, with a target of four million to receive an ­initial dose by the end of April.

By then, supplies of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine to be manufactured under licence by CSL in Australia will supercharge distribution.

Mr Hunt said staff in aged-care facilities, a federal responsibility, would not be required to have the vaccine on advice from the nation’s chief health officers.

Scott Morrison receives his jab in Sydney on Sunday. Picture: AAP

Pressed on why a COVID jab wasn’t mandatory when vaccination for seasonal flu was for hospital workers, he said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee of state CHOs and commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly did not want to provoke a response that could diminish confidence in the vaccines.

“Their reasoning was based around the fact … they didn’t want to create resistance or a backlash, and so they take into account social factors when they do provide their recommendations. It’s their decision,” Mr Hunt told the ABC.

He conceded a mandate would have been considered by the expert committee. “But they also look at what is likely to deliver the highest net outcome in terms of uptake for Australia, and having confidence in what is a free, universally available but voluntary vaccine is the critical thing.”

Mr Morrison said while health authorities still did not know for certain whether the new drugs reduced transmission of the virus — though the “signs were looking good” — they did stop serious disease.

“Our biggest fear as we faced the pandemic a year ago were those horrific scenes that we were seeing in Europe and other parts of the world that led to mass graves in New York,” he said. “We were looking at that type of abyss.

“And what this vaccine does is remove that risk of that serious and widespread and cataclysmic spread of disease with those results.”

After covering critical healthcare staff, aged-care and disability home residents, frontline border protection and quarantine workers, the five-stage rollout would go on to those over 70s, immunocompromised people, Indigenous Australians over 55 and emergency personnel, Mr Hunt said. Next would be the population at large and, subject to clinical trials and regulatory approval, children would follow in the final phase.

Additional reporting: Max Maddison, Charlie Peel