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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Damon Cronshaw

Faces of the vaccine scandal react to lockdown and COVID cases

Irate: Shannon Bailey and Cathy Olds.

Edgeworth's Shannon Bailey and Merewether's Cathy Olds have become the face of thousands of Hunter residents who had their Pfizer vaccinations ripped away.

Now that COVID cases have been detected in the Hunter, they're even more angry and fearful about how the Berejiklian government has treated them.

Merewether's Cathy Olds, a diabetic, had her Pfizer shots cancelled at the Belmont hub.

Mrs Olds said the lockdown and COVID cases in the Hunter were "my worst nightmare realised".

Mr Bailey, who has a lung condition, said he was "anxious and nervous about what's to come".

Asked how he felt about Prime Minister Scott Morrison replacing the jabs taken from the Belmont hub for Sydney students, he said "It's too little, too late".

"Why couldn't the Year 12 students wait a week? Or a fortnight?", he said.

"Would it really have been that detrimental to their studies that they couldn't wait a fortnight?"

Mrs Olds was angry that Premier Gladys Berejiklian took 5500 Pfizer vaccines from the Hunter for Sydney students.

Mrs Olds said she had been a "lifelong Liberal voter".

"Now I have to seriously reconsider that," she said.

"I'm absolutely horrified with what's been happening. It gives me serious worries about how it's been handled."

The Prime Minister said on Thursday that the federal government would replace the Pfizer vaccines over the next fortnight.

Mrs Olds said the Prime Minister was protecting the Premier in replacing the vaccines.

She was, however, concerned about "how long rebooking people is going to take".

She was worried about "thousands of people being in limbo".

And she remained suspicious about whether the cancelled Pfizer appointments would be rebooked.

"They say they'll get a consignment of the vaccine from the federal government to cover it," she said.

"But until such time they can confirm it and start rebooking it, people will be anxious."

Mrs Olds was nervous about the spread of the Delta strain from the moment the NSW government was "reluctant to lock down at all".

"That horrified me that there might be pressure from people in the party of the opinion to let the virus rip and let the economy go on.

"Yet they don't take any consideration of the damage it does to the economy when you have rampant COVID through the community."

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