Slow vaccine rollout is timely

PERHAPS there’s an upside in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s general incompetence in managing vaccination and quarantine during the latest wave of Covid that has shut down half the country.

We now have the chance to have a close look at some of the social experiments being undertaken by other countries, who are more advanced in their vaccination programs, in how they are handling the next stage of the pandemic.

Places such as Britain and France.

Britain, in particular, is taking a high-risk approach. This week almost all pandemic restrictions in England were lifted. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are moving more cautiously. No more social distancing, no more masks, nightclubs, cinemas and sporting stadiums are back at full capacity.

Full of typically populist bombast, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated it as “freedom day’’, even as he himself was just about to go into self-isolation after being deemed as a close contact of his Health Secretary Sajid Javid who has tested positive.

But it’s a massive gamble for Johnson and the British.

On the plus side, the British have moved much more quickly on vaccines than Australia. Almost 70 per cent of Brits have received their first dose of a vaccine and 55 per cent have had both. In Australia, the numbers are about 17 per cent for one dose and 12 per cent for fully vaccinated. Numbers which leave us ranked 38 out of 38 for vaccination rates in countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

But the downside in Britain is the rise in number of Covid cases, with almost 50,000 new cases a day. On Wednesday, there were 73 deaths from Covid. The theory is, of course, vaccines will mean those who contract the illness will experience a much more benign version of the virus. The hope is British hospitals and their intensive care wards won’t be filled to overflowing. That the nexus between infection and serious illness or death can be broken. This is already looking problematic.

There were 752 people admitted to a British hospital with Covid on July 19, a rise of 21 per cent from the previous week and the highest since February. About 60 per cent of those admitted to hospital were unvaccinated.

So the fate of Britain is worth watching. It is a country with high vaccination rates and the world’s biggest outbreak of the Delta strain.

Vaccination rates in neighbouring France are not quite as high, with just over 42 per cent of the population fully vaccinated. But president Emmanuel Macron has announced tough new restrictions that will more or less exclude the unvaccinated from public life. From August 1, anyone without a “health pass’’ will no longer be able to enter restaurants, cafes, movie theatres or travel long distances on trains. Health workers who are not vaccinated by September 15 face suspension or the sack.

It has created all sorts of backlash from political opponents but in the 48 hours after the Macron announcement 2.2 million French people signed up to be vaccinated.

The vaccination is not compulsory, but he is saying there are consequences for risking the health of your fellow citizens. Or as he phrased it, the idea is to “put restrictions on the unvaccinated

SO THE FATE OF BRITAIN IS WORTH WATCHING. IT IS A COUNTRY WITH HIGH VACCINATION RATES AND THE WORLD’S BIGGEST OUTBREAK OF THE DELTA STRAIN.

rather than on everyone’’.

The Australian government’s laggardly, complacent approach to vaccination may allow time to consider the best evidence from around the world on how to deal with the long-term implications of the pandemic and the best way to come out the other side of it.

But there is an election not far away and recent polls have shown Australians are angry with how Morrison has handled this latest stage of the pandemic.

So, if nothing else, selfpreservation may sharpen his focus.