Australia makes world-class mess of its vaccine rollout

[oioioi]

Poor planning, shortages and ‘common sense’ plunge cities into lockdown

Just 13 per cent of the country is fully vaccinated, only 30 per cent has had even one dose, and more than half of aged and disability care residents and workers are still unvaccinated.

AstraZeneca and Pfizer are the only vaccine options in Australia, with the latter in short supply due to an initial order of just 10 million doses to cover a population of more than 25 million.

Australia failed to hedge its bets on vaccine options, putting most of its money on AstraZeneca. Public broadcaster ABC reported that Australia mishandled its negotiations with Pfizer in talks going back to June and July last year, with junior bureaucrats showing a “rude, dismissive and penny-pinching” approach.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/australia-makes-world-class-mess-of-its-vaccine-rollout-1.4630872

[SoCalDavidS]

1. They're Going To Pass Us

Australia is having a rough go of it, but once they get it together, they'll be fine.

They're going to sail through the 50% mark, while we're standing still.

[ornotna]

2. They have their fair share of anti-vaxxers

And mask protesters.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/online-australian-anti-vaxx-groups-grow-by-nearly

[canetoad]

4. Not being nationalistic

But they are definitely in the minority and are earning a lot of disrespect while others are doing the right thing.

The roll-out - botched beyond compare by the conservative gov.

[meadowlander]

3. In fairness, the rich Western countries like the US and UK that bolloxed up their initial response

scooped up all the vaccines because they were prepared to pay through the nose for them and take shortcuts on approvals.

Only 11% of the population in New Zealand is vaccinated because there hasn't been significant community transmission since last April and the government could afford to wait until the vaccines went through the proper approvals and came down to a reasonable price.

I'd take a massive grain of salt with Pfizer reps complaining about governments taking a "penny-pinching" attitude. They are obligated to do that on behalf of their taxpayers.

Funny how the connection between the US and UK outbidding Australia and NZ in their initial desperation is never really explored as a cause for the slow vaccine rollout down under in these kinds of gloating articles in the northern hemisphere press.