Complete collapse of leadership: Australia’s recent Covid response amounts to world-class bungling | Stephen Duckett
As Omicron poses growing challenges, our governments need to put aside political games and prioritise the national interest
This time last year was a time of hope – we had survived 2020, vaccinations were just around the corner and with that, the promise of no more lockdowns and a return to open borders. We would live safely with Covid.
How wrong we were.
The mess we are in is the result of three factors.
The first factor was an external one. As expected, the virus mutated and we learned the Greek alphabet. Delta was worse than the original strain, and then along came Omicron, with its impact exacerbated by the two other factors.
The second factor was world-class bungling. The commonwealth government completely mishandled every aspect of the vaccination program. Its narrow procurement strategy was wrong. Its prioritisation strategy – with the most at-risk to be vaccinated first – was ignored from the start. Its rollout was a shemozzle, so bad that “strollout” was designated Australian word of the year. Its communication of vaccine advice and eligibility was confusing and inconsistent. The commonwealth learned nothing from this litany of errors and proceeded to bungle the testing approach as well.
Read the original article at The Guardian