Pressure on Scott Morrison to include teens in vaccine threshold modelling

Scott Morrison is under increasing pressure from premiers and chief ministers to explore expanding the nation’s reopening vaccine thresholds to include teenagers.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Brisbane on Wednesday. Picture: Dan Peled

Scott Morrison is under increasing pressure from premiers and chief ministers to explore expanding the nation’s reopening vaccine thresholds to include teenagers, as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk joins calls for new ­Doherty Institute modelling.

As vaccine rollout chief John Frewen looks at giving shots to children through schools and together with their parents, Friday’s national cabinet meeting is set to be dominated by the issue of giving jabs to 12 to 15-year-olds.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is planning to demand the reopening targets set out in the ­national cabinet’s post-pandemic plan include children, but the Morrison government is sticking to the current thresholds and Josh Frydenberg is warning state leaders that the national mood is turning against lockdowns.

While Ms Palaszczuk is not ready to demand the 12-to-15 cohort be accounted for in thresholds, her spokesman told The Australian she had told national cabinet it was time for the Doherty Institute to revise their modelling to include children.

“The Premier suggested further modelling be done in regards to vaccinating anyone over 12 years at last week’s national cabinet meeting. The Premier has spoken to people in other countries about their experience with vaccine rollouts including the need for children to be vaccinated,” he said.

While premiers debate child vaccinations, business leaders hope the current thresholds agreed by national cabinet will be reached as early as November.

National Australia Bank chief executive Ross McEwan has touted a freedom day for the nation on Melbourne Cup Day if vaccination rates persist. “This country will fire again … there’s a pathway out now and it’s called vaccination,” he said on Wednesday.

“The second of November, we could call it freedom day in Victoria because it’s the Melbourne Cup day.”

Once the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation finalises its interim advice on vaccinating 1.2 million children aged 12 to 15 – expected to be before Friday – teenagers will be made eligible for vaccines from next week.

Access to both Pfizer and Moderna jabs is expected to be available via GPs, state hubs and schools.

With vaccine supply ramping-up over the next two months, most teenagers are expected to receive at least one jab by December with no impact on the vaccination program for Australians aged 16 and over.

General Frewen on Wednesday said schools would play a “big part” in vaccinations in coming weeks, and he was looking to book families for jab appointments ­together.

“School-based vaccination could be a big part of the program. Already some of the states and territories are moving kids in year 12 to some of the big hubs,” he told ABC News.

“We are also looking at a program where we might be able to book families in so parents and kids can get done together. We are working a set of options at the moment that will give us the best opportunity to get all of those kids vaccinated as quickly as possible.”

Under existing approvals, about 8000 children aged 12 to 15, with underlying medical con­ditions and those in Indigenous and remote communities, have been vaccinated.

Mr Barr has called for the past week for children to now to be included in vaccine targets, and said he feared the national plan did not fully account for the three-week gap between a person getting jabbed and the vaccine providing the fullest immunity.

“We’re in a better position than any other jurisdiction to go beyond 80 per cent and to vaccinate our 12 to 15-year-olds, but I am going to continue to advocate that at a national level,” he said.

“We all try our very best to vaccinate as many 12 to 15-year-olds as we can before big, big decisions are made, particularly at the 80 per cent national threshold.”

Spread of the Delta strain has been highest in young Australians and epidemiologists have called on state and federal governments to prioritise the vaccination of 12 to 39-year-olds.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant on Wednesday said the vaccination of people 16 to 40 was a key part of breaking the Delta transmission chain in the nation’s worst-hit state.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has conceded that targeted lockdowns “in some circumstances” could be used under the national plan when ­vaccinated rates reached 70 to 80 per cent.