Access disputes but still an amazing feat

The desperate pursuit of the life-saving coronavirus inoculations has led to a flurry of vaccine diplomacy. Russia and China have committed to providing hundreds of millions of doses to a range of developing nations in exchange for stronger ties. US President Joe Biden has attempted to counter this by contributing billions of dollars to the Covax fund to help developing nations obtain enough vaccine.

But that has not stopped some nations playing hardball. The European Union has been in fierce dispute with vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca after the company was able to deliver only a third of the 90 million doses it promised during the first three months of the year. That dispute triggered the decision by the EU to ban a shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses to Australia this month.

The global uncertainty has added to growing concerns that the local vaccination rollout is behind schedule. From today, about 1000 general practices are meant to start delivering vaccinations, alongside 100 Commonwealth-run, GP-led clinics. But along with hiccups in the booking system there has been uncertainly about the number of doses each clinic will get its hands on.

Despite the local mishaps and global jockeying for doses, we should not lose sight that it is only just over a year since China publicly released the first genomic sequencing of the virus, the essential building block in developing a vaccine. Since then not only have several vaccines been approved, but close to 400m doses administered. Whatever the glitches along the way, that has been a remarkable effort.