Vaccine should be ‘as mandatory as you can make it’ – Australia PM

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that he would like to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for all Australian citizens.

He was speaking after his government signed an agreement with the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca to manufacture the potential Covid-19 vaccine, being developed by Oxford University. Researchers hope to have results of a Phase Three efficacy trial by the end of the year.

Scott Morrison described the vaccine as one the most promising and advanced in the world. Mr Morrison said he wanted it to be mandatory unless there were individual medical reasons for not having it.

The vaccine should be “as mandatory as you can possibly make it”, he said.

He added that If the vaccine clears trials, the federal government would manufacture it and make it free for all Australians – but that it was unlikely to happen until next year at the earliest.

The Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he expected strong voluntary take-up of any vaccine that was approved for use.

But the health spokesman for Australia’s opposition Labour Party, accused the prime minister of spin, saying it was not clear that Australia had the manufacturing capacity to produce the vaccine.