How Australia backed the wrong horse in the vaccine stakes - podcast episode cover

How Australia backed the wrong horse in the vaccine stakes

The Briefing
Jun 24, 2021•22 min•Season 2Ep. 140
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Episode description

Australia’s vaccine rollout has been a disaster.   So far only 2.8 percent of Australians have been fully vaccinated... In Israel 57% are fully vaccinated. 

 

In Israel they prioritised the Pfizer vaccine, in Australia we bet harder on the AstraZeneca vaccine... and backed the wrong horse.   Professor Bill Bowtell is Adjunct Professor at UNSW’s Kirby Institute. He says Australia was offered a deal with Pfizer and knocked it back

 

This week we learned that the AstraZeneca vaccine, thanks to its blood clot issues, will be phased out by October.   This is bringing the decision not to secure more Pfizer doses earlier into very sharp focus. How and why did Australia back the wrong horse in the Covid vaccine stakes?

 

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