The vaccination booster rollout was always going to be a Commonwealth affair.
Announcing eligibility for booster shots back at the end of October, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “The booster program will roll out directly to people living in residential aged care facilities and people with a disability through an in-reach program… The Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots are free and will be available through the primary healthcare network (GPs, community pharmacies, Aboriginal community controlled health services, and Commonwealth vaccination clinics) and state and territory vaccination hubs.”
Within days of the commencement, Health Minister Greg Hunt was claiming success: “We’re off to a flying start. GPs, state clinics, Commonwealth clinics, Indigenous medical centres, aged care and disability… they’ve been vaccinating people with boosters so it’s a great start and good news for Australians.”
As other vaccines were added to the program, the emphasis stayed on Commonwealth-funded services — mainly GPs, pharmacies and community health bodies, with state and territory hubs as an afterthought.
“There are over 8500 GPs, community pharmacies, Aboriginal community controlled health organisations, Commonwealth and state clinics providing access to either or both of Moderna and Pfizer for boosters,” Hunt said just 10 days ago.
Remember that the original vaccination rollout was intended to be mostly a Commonwealth responsibility: states and territories would vaccinate their frontline health workers while the Commonwealth took care of aged care and residential disability care, then open up to the bulk of the population in stages relying on primary care.
Commonwealth-funded GP respiratory clinics would be set up, and with GPs and Aboriginal health services would be responsible for vaccinating millions of Australians. GPs would be the “backbone” of the vaccination program, Hunt said.
Then it became clear what a debacle the Commonwealth program was, especially as the Delta variant exploded across Sydney, then Canberra and Melbourne.
The aged care and residential disability care rollout was a disaster, and GPs constantly lamented they weren’t getting enough vaccines because the government had relied too heavily on locally manufactured AstraZeneca. The states were forced to step up, opening up and expanding vaccination hubs from frontline workers to everyone in the face of thousands of cases a day.
Rinse, repeat.
Now Morrison wants the states to again step up and open up vaccination hubs to shoulder the burden of a booster program that suddenly looks as much of a race as the initial vaccination effort. Or as his apologists at The Australian put it, he’s “putting the heat on” the states. Meantime, GPs are complaining of a lack of funding and supply to meet the demand purely for those who are deemed eligible for one — which under the federal government’s rules is still only a minority of the population.
There are “plenty of doses in the fridge”, Morrison says, but apparently insufficient funding to make it worthwhile for GPs to run vaccinations at scale.
It’s early yet, but it looks increasingly like Morrison has again planned a Commonwealth rollout, it has again gone wrong, and he’s again demanding the states and territories save him. What will the price be this time?
Will the booster rollout be another Scott Morrison debacle? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
It is about 65 years since my old Scots Gran died. It is amazing how often I think of her and her wealth of pithy sayings for every occasion. But for some years I have recalled mostly only one of these:
Could nae run a bath.
Another favourite Scots saying that applies particularly to Morrison : “Fine words butter no parsnips”.
With regard to the muppets in power, she would have ben right, too.
Cant roll out a vaccination program. Good thing his corrupt govt have so far not got off their bums with the intention of running the country. Better that nothing happens than the train wreck we would get if the did.
I don’t know about that!
They have been very busy turning our money into favors owed via JobKeeper, Consultancies, pharmaceutical manufacturing plant for CSL, Sports Rorts, Car Park rorts, Infrastructure Slush Fund, Fire Recovery Funds that haven’t been spent……and the list goes on.
Our finances are going to be trashed by the time this is over.
The finances were trashed before it even started.
and promise to build a $600 miil gas fired power plant in the marginal Labour held seat of the Hunter Valley. It’s been estimated that the plant will rarely be used.
Wonder how they would go if they actually do start a real shooting war with China?
I am already a victim of this. I cannot get my third jab until late February even though I qualify now. Bugger.
Me too, Losimpson…. immunocompromised and April 22 for me.
Gotta love this government! Not!
Look on HotDoc every day and you will get a cancellation eventually. Also as more supply enters the doctor’s network more appointments will start to appear in HotDoc.
I think you are assuming that all of us live in urban areas.
That is the point Bernard is making. If one trust the government and we really have plenty supplied, the distribution is in a mess, as it is not getting to the user. In the last few days I have called around and everyone has the same answer, they cannot get the supply, they have used their allocation and have to wait for a couple of month to get the next supply. It is the same story as the roll out of the first shots. One would think that in the meantime that they would have learned how to do it. If they would work for a commercial company, they would be fired for incompetence a long time ago.
Depending on where you both live you might have walk-in options.
I got my booster literally 2 hours ago at a walk-in clinic at Prince of Wales hospital (Sydney). It wasn’t that busy and the wait was only half an hour.
I spent an afternoon going in circles (that all ended up on the Covid helpline) trying to get a booster for both my 90+ year old parents before Christmas, two weeks before they were due at 5 months. I asked their medical clinic, the hotline, the office of my Labor mp, I rang the hospitals that run the mass vaccination clinics and nobody could help. Finally I drove to the nearest mass vaccination clinic and they told me that they’d just been told that afternoon to drop the cut off from 5 months to 4 months. I promptly got my booster and the next morning my parents turned up there and got theirs too. Just before Christmas, at a time when our most vulnerable people who had the AZ vaccine are losing their immunity, it is time to drop the gap to 4 months or less for anyone who wants the booster to get one. Particularly those who had the AZ, as that is proving to provide less immunity than to those who had the Pfizer.
It seems Mr. Morrison is running true to form, again he shifts responsibility onto others, this time it is the public responsible for looking after themselves.
The rollout of booster shots is everyone else’s responsibility.!
It is amazing that there is not one person in the Government ranks, who will say enough is enough, force Morrison out the door, or resign and make their reasons public.
Anyone who is considering voting for Morrison at the next election, needs to consider, do you really want him as our leader in time of conflict. Consider his automatic reaction to any form of stress or demand for responsibility toward our people.
With the coalition pushing hard to go to war with China in support of America, whilst America is also trying to force Russia into a conflict over the Ukraine, I ask that they think through the effect on our country and budget, the result for our young people and the potential disaster such action will cause.
Which of the current junta would be much better than him ? The liberal party only picked him because he was the least worst among them and the best at knifing in the back.
There really is only one warm body left on the shelf. People laugh when I say Karen Andrews … but drill down a bit and she’s the only one left who ticks all the boxes for a hospital pass. I still think it will happen as there is no alternative. Josh is just Josh and nothing more, And Dutton is a crypto fascist and not even the LNP will brook that given they gave it to Scotty – who from birth to death will be a slob of a man with zero substance. So yer my money is on Karen from Surfers as their saviour from a complete wipe out with the baseball bats.
obviously you don’t live in her electorate – and you don’t know of her machinations in the LNP – I have heard
some details from members who who are the old diehard Libs. Look at the libs generally they want to shoehorn in Glad the day after she resigned – without waiting for ICAC evidence to be aired
The fact of the ICAC investigation demonstrated that Gladys definitely had the credentials to lead the Liberal Party – especially so if it were found that there is a case to answer.
Why doesn’t the MSM crucify this clown? Oh sorry, I forgot.