With each lockdown, it becomes ever clearer just how exposed we are. No quarantine system is perfect none can guarantee the virus stays out. Weve had a leak every two to three weeks, and we may continue to do so. Weve been lucky most havent led to a full-blown outbreak, but the jury is still out on this one. Victorians are suffering now but any state could be next.
What makes this frustrating is that the world invented a silver bullet a full 15 months ago. Other countries waited, cautiously, until nine months later to start rolling vaccines out. We dragged our feet, inexplicably, for a further two months, by the time theyd already rolled out millions. That two-month delay achieved nothing. Having finally got going, weve underperformed even the slowpoke European Union. At our current pace, we wont be done until the end of next year at the earliest.
Getting Australians vaccinated is an urgent undertaking.Credit:Eddie Jim
This was a choice one that must never be forgotten. But today, while the virus spreads throughout Victoria, our focus must be on how to get out of this mess. Up until now, the government has blamed supply even though you can only receive vaccines if you actually sign contracts for them. But if we take the government at its word that adequate supplies cant come until October, then a major reckoning lies just four months hence. After which time failures can, definitively, no longer be blamed on supply.
Vaccinating five in six adults by the end of the year, as canvassed by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, would require us to more than triple our current rate and significantly exceed even the fastest speeds the US, Britain and EU have achieved. That would be a big lift. But this country is capable of incredible things when the situation demands. And the early promise of mass vaccination hubs and imminent rollout to pharmacies sow seeds of optimism on the distribution front.
Where supplies are already plentiful (the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine almost exclusively destined for the arms of over-50s), the rollout remains slow for a lack of demand. Thats a problem we need to fix right away. Of grave concern is the possibility that all those tens of millions of doses due in the fourth quarter, on which all our hopes are pinned, will be met with the same kind of limp reception. The government absolutely, positively cannot let that happen.
They certainly cant wait until October to act. The first and most obvious incentive is a clear border-reopening schedule. People need to know the border reopening is happening, and soon if we all do the right thing and get vaccinated. This means announcing a fixed end point for our international border closure depending on the number of people vaccinated. And it wont happen all at once. The government needs to lay out precisely how that phased reopening will proceed.
Given we have, uniquely in our history, a former marketing executive as Prime Minister, it is surprising just how lacklustre our vaccine marketing effort has been to date. A new campaign due to start in July targeting under-40s needs to be a big improvement over the existing ads for the over-50s, which can most charitably be described as boring. How about a wall-to-wall campaign featuring Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) out the front of a mass vaccination hub yelling: So where the bloody hell are you?
There are all sorts of other incentives we should try. Ohios vaccine lottery is a neat idea. Lets supercharge it. We could hold a $1 million nightly draw peanuts relative to the social benefit of broad vaccine coverage. How about a free Uber to every appointment? A vaccine passport for within and between states, and internationally is another powerful option. The ability to be exempt from lockdowns, border closures and mask mandates would be a potent incentive for many.