Barnaby Joyce backs AstraZeneca Covid jab for young Aussies

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has backed people under 40 getting the AstraZeneca jab after talking to their doctors.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Martin Ollman

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has backed people under 40 receiving the AstraZeneca jab after consulting with their local GP, and revealed he would use his return as Nationals leader to push for a plan allowing Australia to live with Covid while avoiding “arbitrary” lockdowns.

Mr Joyce said young people would be more likely to die driving a car than from the AstraZeneca vaccine. “They are more in danger driving to the clinic for the AstraZeneca vaccine than they are in taking it,” Mr Joyce told The Australian.

Mr Joyce criticised premiers for their handling of the latest outbreaks, declaring they were playing a “parochial game of shutting the nation down”.

“Circumstances are changing, more people are getting vaccinated,” Mr Joyce said.

“We can’t have this arbitrary shutting down (of) borders, premiers playing prime ministers. That’s got to stop.

“Australia is going to have to live with Covid like we live with the flu. You’re not going to eradicate Covid. Get that out of your head. It is not going to happen.

“Some people are going to get Covid like some people still get the measles and mumps and chickenpox.

“And, at times, and terribly unfortunately, there will be tragedies.

“But if we have an idea in our head that the goal is zero, well, the way to do that is go to your bedroom, lock the door and stay there.”

Mr Joyce said while the “ultimate goal is to keep people alive”, the government also had to keep the economy going.

“To keep coffee shops in the capital cities going, you can’t be arbitrarily opening and closing, opening and closing.”

Mr Joyce this week copped a $200 fine for forgetting to wear a mask at a petrol station in the NSW town of Armidale.