"Scary": The Project slams new government ad about COVID

<div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> <p>Lisa Wilkinson and fellow Channel 10 stars are furious at the latest advertisement that warns about the dangers of COVID-19.</p> <p>The government-approved advertisement shows a terrified young woman struggling to breathe on a ventilator and will run on free-to-air television across the nation from Sunday night.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Here’s the Government ad which will run in Sydney tonight. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19nsw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19nsw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a><br /><br />⚠️ Some viewers may find the video confronting ⚠️ <a href="https://t.co/wdVf9akprl">pic.twitter.com/wdVf9akprl</a></p> — Ricardo Gonçalves (@BUSINESSricardo) <a href="https://twitter.com/BUSINESSricardo/status/1414100513918906369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <p>The advertisement is aimed at showing Australians that the virus can impact everyone and not just the elderly, but comedian Nazeem Hussain had other ideas.</p> <p>"The ad is acting like it's on the population, like it's our fault that the vaccination rates are so low but actually it's a supply problem," comedian Nazeem Hussain said.</p> <p>"The government needs to take responsibility. We should make an ad for the government to go and get some more friggin' vaccines."</p> <p>Lisa Wilkinson said that the message is "confusing".</p> <p>"We've gone from the Dr Nick Coatsworth ad where he is not wearing a face mask, he doesn't do any QR code check-in, he doesn't hand sanatise before he walks into that cafe, to this scare campaign," she said.</p> <p>"I would have thought there should have been something in between the two."</p> <p>Third panellist Jan Fran said that she had "no idea" what message the government was trying to send.</p> <p>"The person in that ad looks under 40. So what they are saying is you are a young person and you could have some severe consequences from getting Covid, but you are not eligible for any of the vaccines," the comedian said.</p> <p>"So it's like what do you want me to do?"</p> <p>NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has pointed to the low vaccination rates as a reason as to why Sydney is in such a strict lockdown.</p> <p>"NSW - in fact, no state or nation or any country on the planet - can live with the Delta variant when our vaccination rates are so low," she said.</p> <p>"So please, do not think that the NSW Government thinks we can live with this when our rate of vaccination is only at 9 per cent.</p> <p>"Because if we chose to live with this while the rates of vaccinations are at 9 per cent, we will see thousands and thousands of hospitalisations and death."</p> <p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already claimed that the lockdown in Sydney is "absolutely not" due to vaccine delays and that government officials have always planned for Australia to still be in the "suppression phase" by July 2021.</p> </div>

Caring