Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

The assumption is for a whole-of-population vaccination program, and the difference between a first and second shot of the Pfizer vaccine, which is what we're doing in the final quarter, is three weeks. So, if you have the whole population in the course of the year—and this is very simple to understand—those people who complete their vaccination by 9 December will be done this year; and, if there are those that occur in the last few days of the year, then, by definition, those three weeks will be on the other side of the calendar. But what does that mean? It means that our goal is to ensure that the whole population has the opportunity, through supply, to access a vaccine this year. If there are some who choose, because of personal circumstances, to have it in the last couple of weeks of the year and that then means that they go into the first week of next year, that does not affect any of the assumptions. So the answer is very simple. The difference between the two is only the difference of the three weeks. For the opposition to think that that is material or germane is deceptive and inaccurate.

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