Why Tony Jones thinks anyone over 40 has ‘a right to feel a little insulted’ right now

Australians aged under 40 are expected to have a choice of COVID-19 vaccines within months.

Head of the COVID-19 vaccine taskforce, Lieutenant General John Frewen, yesterday revealed Australians under 40 can expect to become eligible for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in September or October.

Tony Jones, who is currently filling in as 3AW Mornings host, says he thinks anyone over 40 has “a right to feel insulted” about the vaccine rollout, because they didn’t get a choice.

“Am I right, as a 50-something … to feel a little insulted?,” he said.

Tony used a supermarket analogy to make his point.

“In aisle six you’ve got the over 60s and the only thing on the shelves is AstraZeneca, so you pop it in your basket and off you go,” he said.

“Aisle five is purely for the over 50s. Again, there’s only AstraZeneca on the shelves … but as you’re at the checkout, you’ve just paid for your items, you notice there’s a pallet load of Pfizer being wheeled in and put on the shelves.  You think to yourself ‘Hang on, I’ll have the Pfizer instead’, but you’re told ‘No, no refunds, you’ve got AstraZeneca instead’.

“Then you look at aisles four, three, two and one and they’re absolutely inundated with under 40s … the shelves are absolutely chock-a-block — AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax  — the under 40s can’t decide.

“It’s not a reflection of the under-40s, I think it’s absolutely fantastic that they’ll have this choice of vaccine. It’s probably more a reflection of the sloppy nature of this system we have in place in terms of rolling out this vaccine.”

Currently, over 60s are only eligible for AstraZeneca, while those aged 40 to 59 are eligible for both Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Press PLAY below to hear Tony Jones explain why over 40s have a ‘right to feel insulted’