It’s Friday, so get your National Cabinet pants on… Front of minds: children and COVID vaccinations. It’s a debate that heated up after Annastacia Palaszczuk said she wouldn’t open Queensland’s borders until young children were vaccinated. Yesterday, federal Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said no vaccination program in the world has given jabs to children under 12yo, adding they are generally not getting “severe illness”. Of the 3,815 Aussie kids under 12yo who have had the virus this year, 134 have been hospitalised. Most of those were for “social reasons”, like having parents who were infected and in hospital. Kelly said immunising parents was the best way to “protect yourself and protect your children.” As for how that’s tracking – 60.5% of Aussies over 16yo have had one dose, and 36.4% are fully vaccinated. And NSW became the first state to get 70% of the eligible population with at least one shot down.

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