Australia has secured earlier supply of Pfizer vaccines amid Covid outbreak
Eight days before deal, former PM Kevin Rudd met Pfizer boss Albert Bourla
Mr Rudd wrote a letter to Scott Morrison to explain what happened in meeting
But the government says Mr Rudd s efforts made no difference to the outcome
Defence Minister Peter Dutton accused Mr Rudd of leaking the letter himself
Image: YouTube
Everybody in Australia owes backup PM Kevin Rudd a big thank you for his efforts in sorting out the Pfizer situation, after it was revealed that our real Prime Minister hadn’t bothered to call the pharmaceutical company’s CEO.
Thanks Kevin ’07.”
UPDATE: 12/7/2021 3:55pm
Kevin Rudd has issued a statement following the backlash to the original ABC report, in which he clarifies the initial point made in his letter to Prime Minister Morrison that he had no intention to act as a formal representative of the Australian Government.
“Mr Rudd would definitely not seek to associate himself with the Australian Government’s comprehensively botched vaccine procurement program,” Rudd concluded in his statement as a last jab against the fact that most Australians still can’t get the jab.
Gladys Berejiklian has revealed why she can t order more Pfizer doses as she hinted at Sydney s lockdown being extended.
The New South Wales Premier said with 112 cases recorded overnight, restrictions would continue in Sydney, Wollongong, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains beyond July 16. Given where the numbers are, it s impossible for us to get out of lockdown on Friday, she said.
Insufficient vaccination supplies have been blamed for the lockdown but with just nine per cent of Sydney residents fully vaccinated, Ms Berejiklian said the NSW government was not in a position to order extra Pfizer doses. That s like asking me to interfere in foreign policy, she said.
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Mass vaccination clinics will start to give the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to anyone aged 40 and older because Sydneyâs outbreak has âdramaticallyâ changed the risks, officials say.
The move will raise pressure on other states to consider lowering the age limit for the availability of AstraZeneca at mass vaccination hubs.
The federal and NSW governments are working on a financial support package for locked down Sydneysiders and Premier Gladys Berejiklian said details were âimminentâ.
Cars queue to enter a COVID-19 test site at the Fairfield Showgrounds in south-western Sydney.Â
Kate Geraghty
NSW recorded 112 new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, with 34 of the infected people out in the community for the entire time they were infectious.
Confronting COVID ad’s message has been misinterpreted
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Health and advertising experts have criticised government ad campaigns that promote COVID-19 vaccination, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce also said an ad showing a woman struggling to breathe was a misfire.
The federal government has rolled out two new coronavirus ad campaigns: one titled Arm Yourself, showing a variety of arms with band aids to promote the vaccination program, and another which is targeted at people in Sydney that shows a woman gasping for breath in a hospital bed.