An epidemiologist from the the University of South Australia has slammed the speed of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia.

Professor Adrian Esterman told 6PR’s Liam Bartlett it will be difficult for Australia to meet its target of having everyone vaccinated by the end of the year at the current rollout rate.

“It has been abysmally slow,” he said.

“We are still only half of the rate it needs to be, so we are way, way behind.

“Clearly there is something going wrong here.”

To date more than 281,000 jabs have been administered nationwide, 45,091 of which were in WA.

“With these new outbreaks in Queensland , it’s fairly vital we get the vaccination out as quickly as possible,” Professor Esterman said.

“We know that the UK variant … is not only much more transmissible, it’s also much more deadly.”

Click play to hear the full interview.