2021-08-13
Kids and teenagers must be included in the government's national vaccine targets, Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said today. Young people deserve protection and without high rates of vaccination of the whole population, we will never get out of rolling lockdowns.
The Prime Minister’s current targets exclude children and most teenagers. The PM’s 80% target is really a 65% target of the whole population.
There are reports that kids and teenagers make up a third of cases in NSW and outbreaks in schools are happening across the country. Over 5000 children and teenagers have contracted the virus since the pandemic began in Australia, with the numbers of children contracting the delta strain growing.
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt:
“I am again calling on the National Cabinet to include children and teenagers in the vaccine targets and rollouts.”
“The Prime Minister might want to exclude kids and teenagers so that his vaccination targets are easier to meet, but National Cabinet should not let him.”
“National Cabinet can’t let Scott Morrison fudge the numbers by excluding children from vaccine targets.”
“These current outbreaks are a pandemic of the unvaccinated, but if we leave kids out of the national targets it will become a pandemic of children.”