Scott Morrison Has Finally Said The Word 'Sorry' For The Vaccine Rollout

Scott Morrison has been under increasing pressure to own up to the way the coronavirus vaccine has been rolled out.

While there have been multiple factors at play that have prevented Aussies from booking their appointments, many believe the buck stops with the Prime Minister.

He told the nation last year that it's not a race to get everyone vaccinated and has been accused of not lobbying pharmaceutical companies hard enough to get supplies in earlier.

After days of journalists trying to get him to pledge some sort of responsibility, Mr Morrison has cracked.

"I'm certainly sorry that we haven't been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year. Of course I am," Mr Morrison said today (July 22).

"I think I've been very clear that as Prime Minister I'm responsible for the vaccination program, and that responsibility includes fixing and dealing with the problems that we've had and that is what we have been doing and the vaccination program has turned the corner."

He added that while the initial rollout has been slow, confusing and plagued with concerns, he reckons its on a good course now.

There was a record 184,000 doses of the vaccine administered yesterday (July 21), which takes the seven-day total to more than one million injections.

But the Prime Minister said he has played a part in the way the rollout has been so disastrous.

Mr Morrison admitted there was a bout of vaccine hesitancy when he announced the AstraZeneca vaccine would be opened up to younger Australians if they were happy with rare risk associated with the jab.

It comes after the PM was asked again and again by reporters, commentators and others to own up to the rollout.

Speaking on Adelaide's FIVEaa radio early this week, he said he 'doesn't accept' responsibility, adding: "Right now, under no plan was there any plan that said we'd be at 65-70 per cent vaccination in this country. Under no plan.

"Australia was always going to be in the suppression phase this year."

He later told journalists yesterday that we all need to look to the future for positivity, rather than focus on the past.

"We've had significant challenges with this program, as many countries have, but what matters is how you respond to them," he said.

"What matters is how you fix the things that need to be fixed and get the program doing what it needs to be doing and hitting the vaccination rates it needs to hit to ensure that we can get to where we need to be, where we want to be."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie