A timeline of Australia\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine saga courtesy of Justin Stevens, executive producer of the ABC’s 7.30 program<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
19\/8\/20<\/strong> PM media release: “Australians will be among the first in the world to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, if it proves successful, through an agreement between the Australian Government &\u2026 AstraZeneca.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 7\/9\/20<\/strong> Govt announces $1.7 billion Uni of Oxford\/AstraZeneca & the Uni of QLD\/CSL Manufacturing agreements. PM says \u201ca home-grown sovereign plan for vaccines is the hope I bring to Australians today.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 5\/11\/20<\/strong> Govt announced 2 more vaccines, Novavax (40 million doses) & 10 million doses Pfizer\/BioNTech. PM: \u201c\u2026our Strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue, if our medical experts give the vaccines the green light.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 5\/11\/20<\/strong> PM: \u201cour policy and program, led by Prof Murphy, on getting Australia at the front of the pack when it comes to vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 11\/12\/20<\/strong> PM: \u201c\u2026what we can do is vaccinate our population twice over. And we have one of the highest ratios of availability of doses of any country in the world\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 1\/1\/2021<\/strong> PM: \u201cwe’re being careful to ensure that we dot all the Is & we cross all the Ts\u2026We’re moving promptly to do that\u2026but we’re not cutting corners\u2026On the vaccine, you don’t rush to failure. That’s very dangerous for Australians.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 5\/1\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cI don’t think Australians want us just willy-nilly sending out vials of vaccine that haven’t had their batches tested, which is the normal process that occurs with any TGA approved vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 7\/1\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cwe are now in a position where we believe we’ll be able to commence vaccinations of high priority groups in mid to late February.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 22\/1\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cno we haven’t announced any date\u2026we’ve talked about getting things done in mid to late February. These things\u2026are very conditional upon the supply arrangements coming out of Pfizer in particular.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 22\/1\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cour process is world leading. It’s world class. It’s a process that I believe Australians can have a lot of confidence in. We’re not rushing this, nor are we delaying it. We are getting it right.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 25\/1\/21<\/strong> TGA approves Pfizer vaccine PM: \u201cwe remain on track to have those vaccines in Australia & ready to go from very small beginnings\u2026 very small beginnings, starting small\u2026We are more looking at late February now than mid-February\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 1\/2\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cfrom the end of February\u2026we’ll be able to start vaccinating those in the most sensitive areas, those most vulnerable, those frontline health workers\u2026& then over the course of the year, we expect to get through the population by October.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 12\/2\/21<\/strong> PM: \u201cour vaccination programme, it’s on track & it’s sovereign. We’re doing it here in Australia\u2026within a matter of weeks, starting next week, as they finish, they do the final stage of that process. I call it the bottling process\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 15\/2\/21<\/strong> Health Minister Greg Hunt announces “The Eagle has landed. I am pleased to be able to tell Australians that shortly after midday, the first shipment of Pfizer vaccines arrived in Australia.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n