The Australian Greens have called on the government to establish publicly funded vaccine manufacturing capacity in Australia to ensure any COVID19 vaccine is available to all Australians.
\nA recent Defence science technology report outlined in today\u2019s media has warned of a shortage in vaccines in Australia during a pandemic because of the lack of production capacity in Australia.
\nSpeaking in Melbourne Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP and Greens Health spokesperson Dr Richard Di Natale called on the Morrison government to immediately invest $70 million in expanding the CSIRO\u2019s vaccine manufacturing facilities and to develop a plan to stand up a publicly funded manufacturing capacity by working with the Australian medical industry.
\nThe Greens also want the Australian government to ensure the vaccine is available free of charge and have repeated their call for the flu vaccine to be fully available and free.
\nAdam Bandt said:
\n\u201cWe need a publicly backed vaccine manufacturer.\u201d
\n\u201cCurrently most vaccine manufacturing happens in the United States, China and Germany. Australia risks being at the back of the queue.\u201d
\n\u201cAustralians shouldn\u2019t have to rely on Donald Trump putting us ahead of his reelection chances and expect that vaccines made in the United States will come here quickly.\u201d
\n\u201cWe have wonderful medical scientists who are already working on vaccine candidates and some manufacturing capacity at the CSIRO and elsewhere that could be scaled up with the right investment from the Commonwealth.\u201d
\n\u201cIf we can\u2019t get the vaccine through other means, a publicly-owned COVID vaccine manufacturer may be the only way to save lives.\u201d
\nDr Richard Di Natale said:
\n\u201cThe government has a responsibility to ensure that Australians have timely, secure and free access to any COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. We know that the pandemic will likely disrupt existing supply chains for vaccines at a time when unprecedented supply will be required.\u201d
\n\u201cIn past pandemics we have seen uneven and unfair distribution of vaccines in which wealthy nations have placed huge early orders and squeezed out smaller nations. By producing the vaccine locally Australia can secure domestic access for vulnerable Australians and also assist in ensuring access in our region.\u201d
\n\u201cThe government also needs to ensure any COVID19 vaccine is free and widely available.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Australian Greens have called on the government to establish publicly funded vaccine manufacturing capacity in Australia to ensure any COVID19 vaccine is available to all Australians. A recent Defence science technology report outlined in today\u2019s media has warned of a shortage in vaccines in Australia during a pandemic because of the lack of production … Continue reading “Publicly-owned COVID19 vaccine manufacturer may be only way to save lives: Greens”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}