
The Australian Government is caught in a war of words with the European Union about vaccine delivery amid rising frustration at home about our slow, messy rollout. Scott Morrison blames Europe for blocking shipments. Europe says it’s doing no such thing. Regardless of who’s right, the latest roadblock points to a problem that’s hindered our vaccine rollout from the very start. Since last year, the government has tried to project breezy optimism about the state of the rollout, often at the cost of providing crucial details to the Australian people, left sitting in the dark being fed bullshit.
August 2020: the deal that wasn’t
Prime Minister Scott Morrison triumphantly announces Australia’s vaccine “deal” with AstraZeneca. Within hours, however, the company points out the “deal” is actually a letter of intent, with many of the crucial details yet to be finalised. Other countries, like the United Kingdom, had signed similar letters of intent months earlier.
The slow process
By the start of the year, it became apparent that Australia was taking longer to get its rollout under way than many comparable countries. The official line was that we were going slow to keep safe — since COVID-19 wasn’t running amok, the Therapeutic Goods Administration could consider vaccines slowly and not authorise for emergency use.
But there was always a lag between TGA approval in late January and the first vaccines being distributed a month later. Labor had been criticising the lag between approval and vaccination since January, and Morrison’s response was to accuse them of putting Australians in danger.
Morrison also defended the comparatively slow rollout by falsely accusing the United Kingdom of cutting corners and not batch-testing its vaccines. By now, more than 30 million Britons have received at least one vaccine dose, and virus numbers have fallen dramatically.
The shifting October end date
Once upon a time, the government was adamant Australians would be vaccinated by October. They’ve now all but abandoned that, saying they’d only ever committed to getting people their first dose by then. Given the AstraZeneca vaccine requires a 12-week gap, some people won’t be inoculated until January next year.
Part of the problem is that some of Health Minister Greg Hunt’s first announcements on the vaccine timeline were delivered via exclusive drop to the News Corp tabloids, which reported an October completion.
As late as March 9, Morrison was still saying Australia would be on track for full vaccination by October. Two days later, Health Secretary Brendan Murphy admitted that actually meant many would only have one dose by October.
A day later, Morrison said he’d known for a month that full vaccination by October wasn’t possible, when he and Hunt had made it “very clear”. At the relevant press conference in February, Hun said there was “very, very good news” on the vaccine front, and suggested the government might have to remodel some things. Until Murphy’s estimates appearance, the government had plenty of opportunities to be real with the Australian public about what the October deadline meant, but never did.
The European Problem
Now, the European Union has emerged as the latest villain in the government’s vaccine drive. Yesterday, Scott Morrison blamed 3.1 million missing doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been blocked by the EU. Overnight, the European Commission said they’d only ever blocked a request for 250,000 doses back in March. The government responded by accusing the Europeans of arguing semantics. AstraZeneca hasn’t requested approval to ship from the EU, fearing they’ll be blocked.
Still, the current jam is one the government has known about from the very start. Way back in January, the EU put in place the export controls that mean companies such as AstraZeneca must obtain their permission before shipping vaccines. Despite the obvious challenge this could mean for our rollout, Hunt continued to project confident optimism. And even when Europe blocked the shipment in March, Hunt insisted our rollout wouldn’t be affected.
Just a month later, the government has turned around and blamed Europe.
SALE ENDS MIDNIGHT
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I reckon Scotty couldn’t politics straight in bed.
Lying and conniving in bed?
Scotty can even do it under water.
But not ‘on water‘ and never, ever on a Sunday.
A “religious synonym”?
You know when Morrison is lying and blame shifting just by the tone of his voice.
Also, his lips move.
They’ve trashed our relations with China. Now they’re doing it with Europe. We’re going to run out of trading partners soon.
I don’t reckon we’ve even got our own wanking techniques perfected yet, Drastic!. So.. no good talking about any “partners”…
“We’re going to run out of trading partners soon.”
The ace up our sleeve of course is having A. Abbott working to stitch up fabulous trade deals with Brexited Britain. Job sorted.
There will always be Vladimir to fall back on.
More of the same, Cky. Unbalanced vaccine agenda driven codswallop. It’s a slow roll-out because and I am loathe to say it, but Morrison is actually being very cautious for the right reasons. If there is a vaccine flood out into the communities he knows full well that the vaccine side effects and vaccine related deaths will sky-rocket to biblical proportions. He is left with no choice but to trickle out the vaccine lest the end be nigh. All you guinea pigs out there be thankful.
?
When do you think this skyrocketing might happen Craig? Because about half a billion people around the world have received a vaccine already, and I see no vaccine-related deaths in biblical proportions anywhere.
Thats the reason for the slow trickle. I question your statistics of “half a billion”….MSM sources?? According to bonafide independent non MSM sources the death count is in the many thousands and the side effects are in the millions. The covid death rate is 0.025 %. Look it up for yourself.
Some of these links are recent common knowledge.
AstraZeneca changes the name of its coronavirus vaccine after wave of blood clot deaths
German capital now limiting use of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after more blood clots deaths discovered
Thailand suspends mass vaccinations with AstraZeneca jab, in wake of blood clot deaths
BREAKING: Dr. Fauci admits COVID vaccine may not be safe
Vaccine expert calls on WHO to immediately halt all coronavirus mass vaccinations
Its a difficult time, fear of Covid versus fear of the cure.
Life involves risk, and I will take the calculated one just like hundreds of millions before me and get vaccinated.
Probably billions before me by the time we in Australia get around to getting it.
Spot on – I’ve posted similar replies & Australians are lucky to have more time before taking a high risk jab for no good reason. Australians seem to be like sheep -just like the Kiwi’s. Not curious as to why Non Govt Medical news is strongly censored? There’s an agenda and you should be finding out about it & applying your own BS Meter.
I’m 76 & in good health. I will not be compromising my health by taking an unpoven experimental jab rushed out by an Industry who have been relieved of responsibilty if anything goes wrong ! No alarm beel going off? This Irish Dr -in 6 min sums up Covid -19.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRRyO9LMNWY
Since “jab” refers to the method of delivery, not the substance delivered, perhaps you could explain why after a couple of hundred years synringes are still regarded as “experimental”.
The method of delivery is an issue in it’s own right but if you are not concerned about the vaccine contents then please advise us what you believe is in it.
One you tube video is all it takes apparently….for some simple souls to believe anything. The majority of the world’s doctors & scientists havn’t seen this one you tube video………
I cant believe so many people have fallen down the QANON rabbit hole. Given a choice, I prefer to listen to doctors & scientists- the majority of whom KNOW Covid 19 is real.
This has nothing to do with qanon you goose. This issue is apolitical and not left or right. It affects everyone. The rabbit hole you keep rabbiting on about is south from your belly button. I keep forgetting how simple you are. North is up and south is down. There ya go, easy.
Why the needlessly unpleasant ad hominem attack?
First time on social media?
What about him/her unpleasant ad hominem attacks that I am a member of qanon? That is offensive and completely untrue. If it’s good for the gander it’s good for the goose.
I am sick and tired of him/her unpleasant ad hominem attacks on myself and other posters by calling us qinon members just because we have a different opinion to him/her. It’s just a very pathetic attempt to silence any opposition by pigeon holing instead of balanced debate.
What is qinon?
One Year of 24/7 Scary Virus info is all it takes apparently….for some simple souls to believe anything.
Fixed it for you. Now go get your jab asap. ( Don’t forget to mask up )
youtube is not a medical reference but cheap entertainment
Fair enough BUT I don’t go there for entertainment. There is some good information there if you kbnow where to look. Maybe the following will be more to your liking. AUSTRALIAN DOCTORS COVID MEDICAL NETWORK
https://covidmedicalnetwork.com/
https://covidmedicalnetwork.com/disclaimers.aspx
Thats a very intelligent quote.
I notice it used everywhere & no doubt it’s mandatory for any web site -including financial.
What is an ‘Unblanced vaccine agenda?’
Do you actually have any evidence for the supposedly science based claims you are making, let alone personal expertise?
Basically following the crazed Trump/GOP and Fox supporter line…… if they cannot get you on nationalism, Christianity or white supremacy, any old conspiracy theory will do….
Some context would be nice Drew. I could say the exact same thing about crazed marxism. But I won’t because it would lack context..both Trump and Biden are pro vaccine. One party with two faces. Whoever wins US elections always belong to the same club. Total charade.
“Breezy optimism”. Now where have we heard that before? Oh yes, Australia was going to “meet and beat” its Kyoto commitments “in a canter”.
We all know how well that worked out. Some call it breezy optimism, I call it lying.