Flu numbers rise while vaccine rates remain low <\/a><\/p>\nThe flu season is ramping up with more cases, more hospital admissions and more patients sent to intensive care units.<\/p>\n
Health department data showed fewer than one-third of Queenslanders have had their flu jab in 2025, although there had been a notable increase in vaccination uptake earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Professor Griffin said while he understood not everyone wanted to be vaccinated on-camera, a leader saying whether they had received the jab was “something that could be done”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people in positions of power sharing that they are also onboard with the messaging that our health department is sharing is something that could really be important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/27c1befcd8ce2ba3357ae32af9a03296\")
<\/p>\n
Paul Griffin says he believes people in positions of power should share health messaging. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
‘Failing the leadership test’<\/p>\n
Shadow Health Minister Mark Bailey said Mr Crisafulli and Mr Bleijie were “failing the leadership test” by refusing to say publicly whether they had received the flu vaccination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“How can they expect Queenslanders to go out there and ensure that they are protected if they themselves are not willing to simply share that information?” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“I am not happy that we are bottom … in the nation when it comes to vaccination rates.”<\/p>\n
Mr Crisafulli, in response to criticism, has said his government had restored free flu vaccinations that were not funded, spent more money on advertising flu jabs than last year and started the vaccination program rollout earlier than in previous years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Queensland Health data showed year-to-date cases were down 2 per cent on last year’s.<\/p>\n
Mr Crisafulli said this was a \u201creasonable indication of how seriously\u201d the government was taking the flu season.<\/p>\n
![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/79d715fcbe31cc8c72daeb6ae2f98bc9\")
<\/p>\n
David Crisafulli has not shared publicly whether he has not had his flu vaccination this year despite sharing a photo on Instagram in 2021 while getting his COVID jab. (Supplied: Instagram)<\/p>\n
Mr Bailey said it was “curious” that Mr Crisafulli and Mr Bleijie had previously promoted receiving the COVID-19 and flu vaccinations but were now not willing to say publicly whether they had been vaccinated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think what is pretty clear is that you are seeing [them] play to the anti-vax crowd,” Mr Bailey said.<\/p>\n
Mr Bleijie said his position on vaccination had not changed and rejected the idea his stance was an attempt to appeal to voters who had anti-vaccination views.<\/p>\n
“We have a campaign on the flu vaccinations, but the health of Queenslanders is a matter for Queenslanders with individual responsibility,” he said<\/p>\n
“And just as I am a private citizen, so are Queenslanders.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland’s deputy premier says he is comfortable with the state’s flu vaccination rates, despite an expert warning they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,49865,144,154,137,49866,94,701],"class_list":["post-61780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-david-crisafulli","tag-flu","tag-flu-vaccine","tag-health","tag-jarrod-bleijie","tag-qld","tag-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}