'Get on the vaccines’ if you want to ‘get on the beers’: Victoria premier urges Australians to get AstraZeneca Covid jab

The premier of Australia’s state of Victoria has taken to social media to urge fellow citizens to leave behind their skepticism of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine if they want lockdowns to end.

Daniel Andrews posted a cartoon diagram on Twitter urging citizens to get jabbed with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which some are unwilling to take because of rare blood-clotting side effects.

The state premier, a member of the Labor Party, posted the diagram on Friday, captioning it “If you want to get on the beers, we've all got to get on the vaccines.”

The Venn diagram has a copy-and-paste image of a Victorian beer on one side and a vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine on the other. In the middle crossover section is the label “things that are no good to us in the fridge.”

The label suggests that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be kept in storage unused, and that lockdowns will be eased only once the slow vaccination rollout improves.

Australia had originally only recommended AstraZeneca for its over 60s but it has since become advisable for younger ages, due to a national outbreak.

Australia's health minister Greg Hunt has come under pressure this week for emails that allegedly show delays in talks with Pfizer last year for the supply of vaccines. The country invested heavily in the unpopular AstraZeneca early this year and has had a supply shortage of other dosages.

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