Brendan Murphy gets last word on how helpful the media was during rush to deliver COVID vaccines

Professor Brendan Murphy steered Australia through a once-in-a-century public health emergency, the likes of which were last known in 1921 when the government decided to set up a federal health department. But the outgoing health secretary has a bone to pick with the media who, in his view, punched down on a technically successful vaccine rollout.

Delivering his valedictory speech in Canberra last week, Murphy made a careful but confident assertion that Australia performed relatively well in comparison to other similar countries during the pandemic, commending the way the bureaucracy and government were able to pivot in changing circumstances to meet the needs of the day.