Appearing on the Today show, the Prime Minister was relayed a claim from Senator Jacqui Lambie from earlier in the program that the AstraZeneca immunisation was “the cheap option” and that it has come back to bite Australia as Sydney deals with a growing outbreak.Mr Morrison snapped.“That is rubbish. It is (cost) $7 billion; that is not cheap in anybody‘s language,” he said.Today host Karl Stefanovic interjected, “Cheaper than Pfizer, though.”Morrison defended the government’s spending on Covid-19 vaccines. Originally, the government purchased More than 50 million doses of AstraZeneca, the majority of which have been produced in Australia.The government also originally purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but has significantly increased that volume since concerns over the AstraZeneca link with rare blood clotting caused disruptions in its rollout.“I mean, the Commonwealth has invested over $310 billion in supporting Australia through this pandemic in health and economic measures,” Mr Morrison said.“That is more than twice what all the states and territories have done together combined, and more. So (the government) has spared no effort in protecting the lives and livelihoods of Australians.”Appearing on Today, Tasmania’s Ms Lambie said, “From being part of that Covid committee the other day (my question) was, ‘Why did you get us the budget shot?’ It was cheaper. That is worrying because I have to ask what is our worth to the prime minister and they will still not give a direct answer whether they purchased the AstraZeneca because it was cheaper than the Pfizer and that is terribly, terribly worrying.”It comes as NSW residents nervously await the state government’s update on Covid-19 cases after 16 new cases were confirmed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections in the outbreak to 37.“Well obviously (I’m) concerned (about Sydney) but also very confident in the ability of NSW Government, which they have demonstrated time and again in dealing with these situations,” he told 7 News in another breakfast TV interview.“I think that the restrictions that they‘ve put in place are understandable and common sense and I commend premier Berejiklian for resisting going into a full lockdown.”
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