Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has questioned whether younger Australians should be able to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, as the state comes close to running out of Pfizer doses.
Ms Palaszczuk said National Cabinet did not make the decision to widen the availability of AstraZeneca to under-40s.
"National Cabinet did not make that decision," she said at her COVID-19 media briefing today.
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"I like to ask the prime minister, did his cabinet make that decision?"
She called into question whether it was wise for the prime minister to allow younger Australians to get AstraZeneca.
"We want Queenslanders to get vaccinated," she said.
"But there is some clear guidelines that have been put in place by the chief health officer, ATAGI, and the AMA."
She urged Queenslanders to listen to the advice of health experts, including Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.
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"At the moment, the advice is for people aged 40 to 59 to get Pfizer, and people 60 and over to get AstraZeneca," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"There has been no National Cabinet decision about AstraZeneca being given to under-40s."
Dr Young was visibly angry at the prime minister's decision to allow younger Australians to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"I do not want under-40s to get AstraZeneca," she said.
"I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldn't die.
"We've had very few deaths due to COVID-19 in Australia in people under the age of 50.
"Wouldn't it be terrible that our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic died because of the vaccine?"
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Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said Queensland is due to run out of Pfizer vaccines in eight days, and that the state has been denied extra supply by the Federal Government.
She said extra vaccines had been requested from Australia's vaccine rollout commander Lieutenant-General John Frewen.
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"The reason we gave is that we are at a critical level and that at some of our sites we are projected to run out of Pfizer by as soon as week 20," she said.
"That's July 5. Next Monday.
"About three weeks ago, when Victoria went into lockdown and asked for additional supply, they got an extra 100,000 vaccines.
"We weren't offered less than what we asked for, we have been denied any extra vaccines."
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Ms D'Ath called on the Federal Government to disclose national Pfizer stockpiles, and asked whether low supply was behind the federal decision to expand eligibility for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"Have we only got what is allocated, and no contingency stock left until that big delivery in October?" she said.
"It can't simply be because we have a lot of stock of one vaccine and not enough of the other, to start recommending that people get a particular vaccine.
"That advice should always be based on clinical advice."
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked to serious blood clots in extremely rare cases – with younger people more likely to suffer the side-effect.
Queensland had three new local cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
