NATALIE BARR:
The Australian Government's $23.9 million vaccine campaign begins today. It's aimed at helping every Australian understand how the vaccine works, how it will help keep them safe, and how it will be rolled out.
[Plays COVID-19 vaccine advertisement]
The Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use in Australia with the AstraZeneca jab on track to be rolled out by March.
The Australian Government's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Alison McMillan joins me now. Morning to you. Lot of money invested in this campaign. Who’s the target audience? What groups have shown the most resistance to the vaccine?
ALISON MCMILLAN:
Well the target is everyone. We want to provide, Natalie, information to the entire population because that’s our aim, we want to vaccinate everyone eventually. Our focus, as you know, initially, will be those most vulnerable, those living in residential aged care, aged care and health workers and people working on the frontline. But the campaign is to provide that reliable information to the community so they can make the best choice for themselves.
NATALIE BARR:
We’ve seen that the campaign will be split into these three phases. When will each of the stages be released?
ALISON MCMILLAN:
Well, we’ve already been doing that. We’ve been providing information now for a year, since really this pandemic commenced, and we continue to do that. This is now a rollout of the vaccine program of information, television advertising as you’ve seen. Lots of information available across the country so people can make the right choice. That will continue to rollout as the program rolls out.
NATALIE BARR:
So, I guess I mean, If I’m sitting at home and I'm 25 or I’m 45, what do I do?
ALISON MCMILLAN:
If you’re 25 or 45, we ask you to keep, firstly, keep doing what you’ve been doing to prevent the transmission of this COVID across- in the population. What we want you to do is get informed, keep informed, because at 25 or 45, you’re not our target right now. It is that vulnerable group, the older group. And in time, as the AstraZeneca, if it gets approved and when it gets approved, we will then begin to rollout to a broader community.
NATALIE BARR:
And you’ll be notified?
ALISON MCMILLAN:
We’ll provide advice about how and when you can get the vaccine, yes. As to whether you’re notified, no. At the moment, I don't think we’ll do that. We’ll be encouraging people to go to places where they can get the vaccine so that we can maximise our effort and cover as much of the population as we can.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. Alison, thank you very much for your time this morning.
ALISON MCMILLAN:
Thank you.
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