Before the public brawling on Wednesday there was the relative calm of Monday night when leaders gathered virtually for an emergency national cabinet meeting. Scott Morrison dialled in from the Lodge where he’s been in quarantine.
Lt Gen John Frewen – brought in to reboot Australia’s sluggish vaccination rollout – was online from Parliament House, accompanied by the health department secretary, Prof Brendan Murphy, the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, and Morrison’s department head, Phil Gaetjens. State and territory leaders battling outbreaks of Covid-19 joined from their jurisdictions.
Given the current risks, the sluggish vaccination rollout was front and centre in the discussion. Because Pfizer stocks are running low, there were questions about when additional supply would be available. Some batches of AstraZeneca are also about to hit their use-by dates. The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the whole inoculation infrastructure needed to gear up significantly before the arrival of new Pfizer doses later in the year – a point she has been making publicly.
According to people familiar with the deliberation, Frewen told the leaders there were 290,000 doses of AstraZeneca currently available. The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, expressed frustration about having to constantly explain conflicting health advice about the AstraZeneca vaccine. The leaders then discussed whether Australia should, in essence, cut its losses, and export the current AstraZeneca stock to the Pacific and the region. But this idea was dismissed.
As AstraZeneca was discussed, Morrison also advised the state and territory leaders Canberra would create a professional indemnity scheme for GPs administering the vaccine. But Morrison did not tell the premiers and chief ministers (certainly not explicitly) that he was also going to telegraph expanding access to AstraZeneca for people under 40.
This particular thunderbolt emerged when Clare Armstrong from the Daily Telegraph asked the prime minister whether the proposed indemnity scheme meant people under 40 would be able to get the jab. Morrison answered by saying: “Well, if they wish to go and speak to their doctor and have access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, they can do so.”
Armstrong persisted: “In any age group?”
Morrison: “So, the answer is yes, they can go and do that.”
So state and territory leaders found out about expanded access when they watched Morrison’s press conference after national cabinet on Monday night. So did Australia’s medical fraternity. GP clinics would be inundated with queries from the public the next day but no advance warning was given.
The scramble to understand what on earth had just happened then cascaded into Tuesday.
The premiers began to distance themselves from Morrison’s comments over the course of the day. On Tuesday, Gaetjens met virtually…
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