Residents angry as vaccines withdrawn

FEDERAL  member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon was one of hundreds of locals who received a text advising their vaccination had been cancelled.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he has now received the Astra Zeneca, but is angry so many category 1A locals have not been able to get vaccinated and worries what will happen if the next hotspot is in the Hunter.

“It’s a disaster and Hunter residents fully appreciate and are sympathetic of the situation Sydney finds themselves in but if Scott Morrison had of done better with more vaccines and different vaccines we wouldn’t be in this situation,” said Mr Fitzgibbon.

“The way the New South Wales government sent out a text to cancel bookings was insensitive and inconsiderate – we’ve waited a long time for these vaccines,” he said.

“I am sympathetic to Gladys because Scott Morrison put us in this position and now we are being treated like second class citizens here.

“But I remain angry about the government’s decision, I understand that Sydney is on fire and we are effectively covid free, but there are two problems, first the way that it was done and second it will be proven a mistake if the next hotspot is in the Hunter region.

“But what I am really angry about is we have frontline workers in the 1A category who can’t get vaccinated, I know one nurse who was unable to get vaccinated because she was pregnant and she is now due to go back to work and has had her Pfizer vaccination cancelled, so she will be returning to work unvaccinated.

“It is outrageous that so many local aged care workers are also unvaccinated,” he said.

“I am encouraging people to get Astra Zeneca and it’s why I had the vaccine today, but I’m not critical of anyone who has rational concerns about AZ and this wouldn’t be happening if Scott Morrison had signed us up for more options,” said Joel Fitzgibbon MP.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the ever changing advice on the vaccines is problematic for people trying to weigh risk and while he encourages people to have the Astra Zeneca he said people should not be criticised for which vaccine they want to receive.

“I am encouraging people to get Astra Zeneca and it’s why I had the vaccine today, but I’m not critical of anyone who has rational concerns about AZ and this wouldn’t be happening if Scott Morrison had signed us up for more options,” said Joel Fitzgibbon.

“I was booked in for the AstraZeneca and then ATAGI decided under 60s were too young – it’s the only time I’ve been told in a long time that I’m too young for something,” laughed Joel.

“I still went to my GP and asked to have the Astra Zeneca, but the GP wouldn’t give it to me because of the new recommendations, so then I searched for weeks and weeks for Pfizer and managed to get appointments.

“When it was announced I could access the AZ again, I didn’t go back to it because of the time between AZ vaccinations, so I stuck with Pfizer to get fully vaccinated quicker.

“Then I get a text cancelling my Pfizer without any indication of when they would next be available,” he said.

“I had a rant on Facebook and my GP then contacted me to say he was running an AZ clinic, so I went there today and now I’m back on the AZ path and god knows how long it will take to get the second shot,” Joel Fitzgibbon said.

On the issue of Australians still unable to return home Joel said, “there were a whole range of things the government could have done, it’s a national tragedy that we are knocking people with Australian passports out of our own country.”