The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to people in disability residential care has been an "abject failure" and discriminatory, an inquiry has heard.
The royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability is hearing evidence about problems with the vaccine rollout.
Royal commission chair Ron Sackville told the hearing disability organisations had at a meeting in April expressed "serious concern at the apparently slow pace of the vaccine rollout for people with disability and disability care workers".
"We heard from the organisations that the delay in vaccinating people with disability and the lack of information was having a significant adverse impact on people with disability," he said.
The federal government announced its vaccine rollout strategy in January, prioritising aged care and disability care residents and their carers.
Counsel assisting, Kate Eastman, said that by March 3 - according to health department figures - fewer than 100 people in disability residential care had received a vaccine dose.
By April 21, 629 people in disability residential care facilities had received one vaccine dose and 117 people had received two doses, she said.
Only 75 disability residential care workers had received two doses and 819 had received one.
By May 6, 834 or four per cent of 23,000 people with disability in residential care had been vaccinated - a rise of only 200 people since the April data.
Of these only 127 had received two doses.
"The Australian government rollout of vaccines to people with disability in residential care - and these are people who represent some of the most vulnerable people in our population - has been an abject failure," she said.
Disabled man Uli Kaplan said the government needed to "throw politics out the window, stop saying (Australia is) going to be the best country".
"Don't underestimate our intelligence, we're quite switched on," he said.
"Just give us the vaccine."
Another witness, disabled man Greg Tucker, asked the commission why the rollout was taking so long.
"We are a much smaller country than the US and they've already had 200 million people vaccinated and we only have two million vaccinated," he said.
Inclusion Australia chief executive Catherine McAlpine said many disabled people felt they had become de-prioritised on the rollout program and this was discrimination.
She said it appeared there was a "deliberate choice" to not provide the necessary resources.
"It was (also) an ongoing concern that during the early phase of the COVID pandemic we didn't hear from the prime minister talking about people with disability," she said.
"It makes people feel forgotten and not important."
Clifford Stephens told the hearing he struggled to find any relevant information about the vaccine rollout for his disabled son Christian, who lives in a four-unit supportive residence in Victoria.
"There has been no information about how you physically actually get the vaccination," Mr Stephens said.
"It really seems to me that we've been let down by the federal government and the state government."
The comments come as Health Minister Greg Hunt said there would be an "acceleration" in the rollout to disability care residents.
He said as of Monday there had been 999 residents and 1527 workers vaccinated.
There were four ways in which they could get their jabs: through a private provider or a primary health network at the care facility, via their GP or via a state-run Pfizer clinic.
Mr Hunt also cited zero cases in disability care as a sign of success.
"We are keeping them safe and making sure they are safe going forward," he said.
Australian Associated Press
