Sydney, Australia
Reuters
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, calling the start of the nation’s vaccination program a “massive step” that will enable it to return to normal.
Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister, removes his protective face mask after arriving for a signing ceremony with Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Prime Minister at Suga’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on 17th November, 2020. PICTURE: Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via Reuters
AUSTRALIA WON’T ADVERTISE COVID-19 VACCINE ON FACEBOOK BUT VOWS PUBLICITY
Australia’s government pledged a publicity campaign for its rollout of COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday – but not in Facebook advertisements, as a feud continues over the social media giant blocking news content from its platform in the country.
Facebook Inc’s abrupt decision on Thursday to stop Australians from sharing news on its platform and strip the pages of domestic and foreign media outlets also blacked out several state government and emergency department accounts, drawing furious responses from lawmakers around the world.
Hours before Australia began inoculations with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would embark on a wide-ranging communication campaign, including online, to ensure vulnerable people turned up for a shot.
But a ban on health department spending to advertise on Facebook would remain in place until the dispute between the Big Tech company and Australia – over a new law to make Facebook pay for news content – was resolved.
“On my watch, until this issue is resolved, there will not be Facebook advertising,” Hunt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “There has been none commissioned or instituted since this dispute arose. Basically you have corporate titans acting as sovereign bullies and they won’t get away with it.”
Since the news blackout, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said he would talk with Facebook about its move over the weekend. On Saturday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Facebook had “tentatively friended us again” without giving further details.
Hunt said the authorities would use every channel to encourage Australians to get vaccinated, including messages on foreign language broadcaster SBS, but “there is the capacity to do paid advertising [on Facebook] and that element is not on the cards…for now”.
A Facebook representative said in an email that the company was “engaging with the Australian Government to outline our ongoing concerns with the proposed law [and would] continue to work with the government on amendments to the law, with the aim of achieving a stable, fair path for both Facebook and publishers”.
– BYRON KAYE, Reuters
Up to four million Australians are expected to be inoculated by March, with Morrison among a small group receiving the first round of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
“This is the beginning of a big game change,” Morrison told reporters moments after getting injected at a medical centre in Sydney. “Every day that goes past from here gets more normal. And that is what is exciting about today.”
The intergovernmental National Cabinet is to review how its five-stage vaccination programme will change the way the country manages the risk of coronavirus transmission in the future, including at its state and international borders.
Australian states have introduced some of the strictest community mobility restrictions in the world to manage the spread of the virus, including intermittent city lockdowns, curfews and border closures.
Reporting a second consecutive day with no coronavirus transmission in the community, the nation has had just under 29,000 infections and 909 deaths since March, ranking among the top 10 in a COVID-19 performance index.
Morrison said the vaccine addresses his “greatest fear” as prime minister: “serious disease and the sort of widespread fatalities that we saw overseas”.
A small number of older Australians at the Castle Hill Medical Centre in western Sydney, aged-care staff, and frontline nurses and workers were also among the first injected, officials said.
From Monday morning, a broader “phase 1-A” rollout is to begin among aged-care and disability staff, and border protection and quarantine workers at vaccine hubs nationwide.
“Phase 1-B” vaccinations of immunocompromised people and those over 70-years-old, as well as Indigenous Australians over 55-years-old and emergency service workers, are to follow.
The vast majority of the population will be injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be produced locally, by the end of October.
On Saturday, thousands of people attended anti-vaccine rallies in major Australian cities to protest what they incorrectly believed to be mandatory vaccinations.
