NATALIE BARR:
He was charged with stopping the boats, and now prominent army chief Lieutenant General John Frewen is taking charge of the country's vaccination program. It's one of the biggest logistical exercises in Australia's history, delivering more than 45 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Today, we're expected to reach a milestone - 7 million doses administered, with roughly 4 per cent of the population fully vaccinated. However, when you compare Australia to other nations, we are trailing behind. In the US, more than 45 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated. Around 47 per cent for the UK, and nearly 57 per cent in Israel have been fully vaccinated. And Lieutenant General John Frewen joins me now. Good morning to you. The Federal Government, the Prime Minister told me yesterday we are- and they've continually said we're doing very well in this country, in Australia. We are on track with the rollout, so why have you been appointed?
JOHN FREWEN:
Hi Natalie. Great to be with you this morning. Look, the vaccine rollout so far has achieved an enormous amount. You've just mentioned yourself that today 7 million doses of vaccines will have been administered in this country. The first million doses here took 47 days; the last million doses took 10 days. This million will have taken 9 days. I mean, there is already a massive endeavour underway, but over the next months ahead we are going to start to get massively more amounts of doses of vaccines coming in, so this is a new phase of the campaign where we really seek to accelerate all of the efforts to make sure that every Australian who wants a vaccine can get a vaccine this year.
NATALIE BARR:
So, of the 37 OECD countries, I think we are in the bottom four for people being fully vaccinated, though, aren't they? What is the biggest issue with the rollout so far?
JOHN FREWEN:
There is three strands to the rollout. There is the access to drugs - pardon me, access to vaccines. There is the ability to administer those vaccines and then there is the willingness of the population to turn up. Now, just the other day, I released the supply planning parameters out until the end of the year. So, we have got the amount of vaccines coming that we need this year. We have got a comprehensive system in place right now about how we are administering the vaccines, but I think we're going to need to expand that. And then, of course, it's going to be all about the population being prepared to turn up to get the vaccines, and that's been very encouraging so far. But from here to the end of the year we're going to have to make sure that people are turning up increasingly in droves.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. So, we’ve had this problem with AstraZeneca, obviously the hesitancy because of the blood clot situation. Now that is being phased out? Is that correct?
JOHN FREWEN:
It's not being phased out, Natalie. AZ has been a really important workhorse in our vaccine rollout. I know that you and Kochie had it. I've had it myself. My mum's due to get her second next week. We're due to go back later next month. AZ will continue to be important. What will happen is though we think the over 60s, which the AZ has been prioritised for right now, they will mostly be fully done by the latter months of the year and then we will be getting into all of those other cohorts with a preference for the other drugs. But the AZ remains a really essential vaccine and the recommendations of ATAGI are around threat base. And if we go back into a high threat environment, then we will be encouraging people to get whichever vaccine they can get as quickly as they can.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. So, now we're going to ramp up Pfizer, are we? Are we increasing our supply of Pfizer?
JOHN FREWEN:
Yeah, through the course of the year now, our Pfizer supplies start to really ramp up and then also Moderna comes online, another mRNA vaccine, later in the year. And so by the last three months of the year, we should have absolutely plentiful supplies of those vaccines. We have had more plentiful supplies of AstraZeneca up until now, and we have been locally producing the AstraZeneca. But through the year now, you can see from the planning parameters I've put out that we will have much greater access to those other drugs particularly in the last quarter of the year.
NATALIE BARR:
There is a lot of speculation on when we're going to get everyone vaccinated. What is your target?
JOHN FREWEN:
So, well, my target, as you mentioned, is to get every Australian who wants a vaccine at least their first dose this year. I have got a review of the whole program going on at the moment, and we're going to run as hard as we can to try and get as many people fully vaccinated this year as we can. And I'm committed to do that. And with the population sort of pulling together on this, I am very confident we will hit the first target in '21 and hopefully get a really good way down the path of getting everyone fully vaccinated.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay, just finally, we've had this problem where really the whole country has been shut down at the edge of school holidays, off the back of a driver that was transporting international aircrews - we hear not vaccinated, not wearing masks. Where do you stand on compulsory vaccination for drivers like that?
JOHN FREWEN:
Look, vaccines is one strand of how we live with COVID-19 and we're going to have to live with COVID for many, many years yet. All of those measures, the testing, the tracing and isolation that we have seen to be so effective when well applied, the social distancing, the wearing of masks, all of those are important, but the vaccine rollout really underpins our ability to keep people safe, to protect lives, livelihoods and to get back to those freedoms that we enjoy. So, getting vaccinated is the right thing to do. It's the right choice in terms of keeping each other safe, and it's the right choice to get us to a place where we can get on with our lives despite the fact that COVID will be in and around us for many years to come.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. Lieutenant General, thank you for your time.
JOHN FREWEN:
Thanks so much Natalie.