Politics

‘Sunrise’ (!) Just Absolutely Demolished The Government Over Its Botched Vaccine Rollout

Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a good point.

by Rob Stott  28 May 2021
Sunrise

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You know something has gone wrong when even notoriously terrible breakfast TV program Sunrise is doing some A+ journalism on the government’s botched vaccine rollout, but that’s exactly what happened this morning, when host Nat Barr interviewed Health Minister Greg Hunt

Barr accused the government of telling people that there was “no rush” for people to get vaccinated. Hunt denied he’d ever said such a thing. Here’s the transcript:

Barr: One of the reasons, minister, they’re saying ‘wait’, is because you and the Prime Minister told them that. 

Hunt: That’s false.

Barr: You said there’s no rush. ..for weeks and weeks and weeks…

Hunt, interrupting: That’s false.

Barr: …on this program. We talked about it on this program.

Hunt: That’s false.

Barr: It’s not false. You said it on our program many times.

Hunt: That’s not something I have ever said.

What Did Greg Hunt And Scott Morrison Actually Say?

Barr was, of course, correct. And Sunrise had the receipts the prove it. Later in the show, Barr and co-host Ryan Phelan replayed the segment while fact-checking Greg Hunt’s claims that the government had never told people there was no rush.

The show played several clips of Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the vaccine rollout is “not a race”.

And the PM is not alone. Last week, Hunt told older Australians who are concerned about receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine because of misguided fears of blood clots that they could simply wait until the end of the year to receive a Pfizer vaccine instead.

“We’ve been very clear that, as supply increases later on in the year, there will be enough mRNA [Pfizer] vaccines for every Australian.” Hunt told ABC News Breakfast last week.

Hunt was later forced to backtrack on the comments because they were seen by many as encouraging vaccine hesitancy.

So How Is Australia’s Vaccine Rollout Actually Going?

Not great, tbh. Barr also pointed out in the interview that only two per cent of the Australian population is fully vaccinated. Hunt again claimed that wasn’t true, saying the figure was closer to 20% of the adult population, and that’s a “huge Australian achievement”.

But Hunt is being a little loose with the truth there as well. Only two per cent of Australian adults have received two vaccine doses, and Sunrise once again had the receipts. They showed a chart illustrating the countries like Israel (57 per cent), the United States (40 per cent) and the United Kingdom (35 per cent) are way ahead of Australia, where only 13 per cent of the total population have received one vaccine dose, and only 1.9 per cent have received two.

So, take a bow, Sunrise.

You can watch the whole segment here.