Covid-19: Plan B to target the reluctant

Targeted ad campaigns and incentive programs for groups of vaccine hesitant Australians will be rolled out if the nation stalls on its plan.

Vaccination rollout head John Frewen. Picture: Martin Ollman

Targeted advertising campaigns and incentive programs for groups of Australians most hesitant to be vaccinated will be rolled out if the nation stalls on its plan to reach an inoculation rate of more than 80 per cent.

Lieutenant General John Frewen, the head of the vaccination rollout, said his strategy would evolve “as we become more aware of exactly who is hesitant or where the hesitancy is”.

“Then we need to start tailoring campaigns for that. And that will be part information, it may be part convenience of vaccination, it could well be incentives,” he said.

With the government moving to encourage 20-39 year olds to get the jab, General Frewen said Australians under 40 could now get an AstraZeneca jab from a pharmacist without consulting a general practitioner.

“You will get a very similar informed consent process and if pharmacists are concerned in any way, they may refer people on to a GP if they need to get any additional advice,” he said.

“We have onboarded 1000 pharmacists. We have already got 250 pharmacists administering AstraZeneca and more and more of them are going to come on now.

“We have been prioritising affected government areas in Sydney, so we are just shy of 50 pharmacists there already doing AstraZeneca.

“We have just been engaged in Queensland, their pharmacists in the affected areas, we are accelerating AstraZeneca too, as they are ordering it.

“So there is another great pathway and it is a more convenient pathway for some. So people shouldn’t be holding back thinking it is a hard thing to do.”

There are also advertising campaigns under way to assuage the concerns of young people in Sydney about the safety of AstraZeneca.

General Frewen on Tuesday rejected a plan from Labor to pay Australians $300 to get vaccinated, with Scott Morrison attacking Anthony Albanese for going against the advice of the head of the rollout.

 

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor accused the Prime Minister of politicising the military. “Despite assurances the use of Defence personnel would remain apolitical, Scott Morrison is politicising and misusing the military to defend the government’s dismal performance in responding to the pandemic and to attack Labor’s policies,” he said.

Responding to concerns of the politicisation of the military during his role, General Frewen said he had “served governments of every ilk across many different operations. I give frank and honest opinions about what I think, and I think right now that Australians are turning up. The time for incentives will come but it is not now.”

Labor MPs on Wednesday were increasingly concerned at the Opposition Leader’s “captain’s call” to give cash to vaccinated people, with some arguing the policy undermined the party’s attack that the government was not providing enough vaccine supply.

There was anger the policy was announced with virtually no consultation, with MPs saying they found out about the policy when it was reported in the media.

Mr Albanese proposed the policy in a meeting of the party’s ­expenditure review committee on Monday, with party sources saying it was developed without the input of health spokesman Mark Butler. There was no mention of the policy at the same day’s caucus meeting and it did not go to ­shadow cabinet.