The Hon Greg Hunt MP Minister for Health and Aged Care
The following questions were put to the Minister for Health and Aged Care by the ABC’s Four Corners program. The below responses were provided.
Since the Minister last spoke to Four Corners, Australia’s vaccine rollout has grown from 2,396,314 doses, to more than 12 million doses administered, with over 40% of the eligible population having received at least one dose and with a record 210,742 doses administered on Thursday 29 July.
This includes approximately 6.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the time this program airs.
It is deeply regrettable that the early promotion of the program and questions below appear to have an anti-AstraZeneca bias.
No, US health experts didnât say tests cannot distinguish between COVID-19 and the flu
An exchange between a reporter and Victorian Chief Health Officer at a press conference this week gave rise to a another wave of misinformation regarding the tests Australia uses to detect COVID-19. 30 July 2021
CoronaCheck is RMIT ABC Fact Check s weekly email newsletter dedicated to fighting the misinformation infodemic surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
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CoronaCheck #76
In this week s CoronaCheck, we debunk viral misinformation about the PCR tests used to identify COVID-19 cases, which ramped up after a Victorian news conference.
Scott Morrison refuses to apologise over botched vaccine rollout, regrets not a race comment
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under pressure to apologise for the slow arrival of COVID-19 jabs - with half the population suffering through lockdown for at least another week - as he tells radio show the not a race comment was taken out of context.
David WuDigital Reporter
July 22, 2021 - 7:20AM
Scott Morrison stopped short of apologising for the vaccine rollout yesterday during three radio interviews and tried to retract his not a race comment from earlier this year.
“When that was said by both [health department secretary] Professor Murphy and I at the time, what we were talking about was the regulation of vaccines and to ensuring that the vaccines that were being used in Australia had gone through their proper approvals authorities,” Mr Morrison told 5AA.
Scott Morrison has suggested the percentage of Australians who need to be vaccinated to end coronavirus lockdowns is 65 to 70 per cent.
In a radio interview on Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister said the stunted jab rollout - which has only vaccinated 14.09 per cent of over 16s - was not to blame for 14 million people being told to stay at home in Victoria, South Australia and Greater Sydney due to outbreaks of the highly-contagious Delta variant.
He said the country would always have needed harsh restrictions this winter because even if the rollout went perfectly not enough people would be jabbed.
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