On Sunrise on Friday morning, host Natalie Barr pointed out the inconsistencies in the government’s vaccine messaging.
As Victoria plunges into its fourth lockdown, acting Premier James Merlino was quick to point out the relationship between a slow vaccine rollout and Victoria’s outbreak.
He said in a press conference on Thursday that, “this nation’s vaccine rollout has been slower than we have hoped. That is a fact. The vaccine rollout is not where we hoped it would be, it’s not where it should be.”
“If more people were vaccinated, we might be facing a very different set of circumstances than we are today. But sadly we are not.”
“There’s only one path to defeating this pandemic, and the successful rollout of the Commonwealth’s vaccine program.”
The outbreak has led to even more questioning of the vaccine rollout, culminating in a disastrous appearance on Sunrise for Health MP Greg Hunt.
In the clip, host Natalie Barr says to Hunt, “one of the reasons, minister, they’re saying ‘wait’ is because you and the Prime Minister told them that.”
“You said no rush, for weeks and weeks and weeks.”
Hunt then repeatedly interrupts her, saying “that’s false” multiple times.
Barr countered with “it’s not false, you said it on our program,” which Hunt denies. Barr was not deterred by Hunt’s interruptions, saying, “your government and the Prime Minister were saying there is no rush.”
Then, in a crack bit of editing by the Sunrise team, a series of clips of the PM Scott Morrison saying, “there is no rush” to get vaccinated, played on the screen.
It’s worth a look here:
Here's what happened when we fact-checked some of Health Minister @GregHuntMP's claims in this morning’s interview about Australia's vaccine rollout. pic.twitter.com/ixE3mHPDZx
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 27, 2021
Barr has been praised for her reporting, with even ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland tweeting about the segment.
With the greatest of respect (from a breakfast competitor 😀)this is pretty good. #auspol https://t.co/lYF7eKNlxN
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) May 28, 2021
