Media interest in Australia’s COIVID-19 vaccine rollout has intensified, according to analysis by realtime media monitoring company Streem.
May had a record of more than 45,000 distinct metropolitan media items about the vaccination program across online, print, radio and TV.
This was up 3.3% from April, when Australia amended its vaccine rollout strategy in response to rare blood clotting linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Overall there have been more than 210,000 distinct metropolitan media items on Australia’s vaccine rollout this year, once syndication has been removed.
The leading topic linked to vaccination coverage in 2021 has been the speed of the rollout, with the Streem data showing it was a key theme in 15% of coverage.
However, it was changes to eligibility criteria that was the number one vaccination topic in May, ahead of discussion linking the vaccine rollout to the reopening of Australia’s borders.
Other topics to experience a large rise in focus in May included "vaccine hesitancy" and the associated risk of further outbreaks.
Meanwhile, May has also seen a 12-month high in media reporting of the possibility that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China.
The theory had largely disappeared from news bulletins towards the end of last year, before a renewed surge.
There were 4300% more Australian media items on the issue in May compared to six months previously.
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