Australia is running 80th in the world when it comes to vaccinating its population in a national humiliation that has war-ravaged Rwanda, protest riddled Lebanon and the tiny poverty stricken nation of Belize doing better.
Just 2.4 people per 100 people have been vaccinated by the Government’s woefully sluggish immunisation program with the country falling farcically short of its goal of four million shots by April 1, with only 670,349 Australians jabbed so far.
Meanwhile poor Rwanda is motoring ahead by comparison, having doled out shots to 2.8 people per 100. That’s in a nation where the average citizen is likely to live 14 years fewer than the typical Australian and earn barely a fraction of our annual wages.
Likewise, Lebanon, gripped in a long-running political and economic crisis, has immunised an average of 3.0 people per 100. Meanwhile, Belize – where 40 per cent of the population live in poverty – has managed 5.2 per 100.
Meanwhile, the US has injected more than 100 million doses, the UK some 30 million and world-beating Israel more than half the population.
So why is rich, democratic and mostly Covid-free Australia doing so poorly?
Times may be tough in Lebanon – with Beirut in the grips of covid, political unrest an economic crisis and the aftermath of last year’s explosion – but the nation is outperforming stable, democratic and prosperous Australia’s vaccination program. Above, a woman carries a masked disabled man in the nation’s capital
A young man receives a vaccination in Rwanda which is currently ahead of Australia in terms of the number of people the government has managed to immunise – 2.8 people per 100 to our equivalent 2.4 per 100
The Central American nation of Belize is likewise beating Australia in its race to vaccinate its 400,000-strong population
Health Minister Greg Hunt has blamed Europe for blocking several shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to its own surging virus numbers.
That may not be as much of a problem moving forward with the Australian company CSL’s production line of AstraZeneca jabs ramping up.
And the states say there are major issues with the Federal Government’s rollout of the 2.4 million doses the nation already has, supposedly ready to go.
For instance, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said his government last week expected to receive 13,700 AstraZeneca jabs. 45,000 doses were delivered instead.
‘You get 45,000 items dumped on your front door at night and told, ‘you should have it out by the next morning’,’ Mr Hazzard said.
‘No one would be able to do that. If you are going to win a war, you can’t have the tanks and artillery dropped at the airport and (then be) told about it. You have to know what your supply lines are.
‘It shows an ignorance about frontline delivery of services and I think that’s because the Federal government doesn’t deliver frontline services.’
Some doctors have also criticised the design of the program – which is so far focused largely on GP clinics delivering the jabs to their patients.
That’s rather than mass-vaccination sites – the US is using stadiums and military personnel to deliver jabs – and pharmacies.
Several GP clinics have complained about tiny amounts of doses trickling in about 50 a week when they were originally planning to inject hundreds or thousands in that same period.
Pressure’s on: Health Minister Greg Hunt has assured Australians that the country’s vaccination program is ramping up
But as of this morning just 670,000 jabs had been performed (one of the first is above)
Dr Stephen Duckett, a health expert at the Grattan Institute think tank, told the Daily Telegraph this week ‘you have to do mass vaccination centres’.
But Royal Australian College of GPs President Dr Karen Price said GP clinics are suitable for the program as ‘GPs are used to doing vaccinations.
‘I mean last year with the flu vaccination we did six million in six weeks so given the right supply and the right timing we can get it done,’ she told Sky News.
It’s not all bad news – with a few exceptions, Australia has had a virtually Covid-free 2021.
Queensland reported just one new case on Thursday meaning greater Brisbane has come out of its snap three day lockdown.
And New South Wales – where there were fears the outbreak may have spread to Byron Bay – reported zero new cases.
Australia has reported just 909 Covid-related deaths, compared to 552,000 in the United States.