Let us loose early for hitting vax milestones

Lockdown-weary Victorians are getting vaccinated and following the rules. Now we need our politicians to play their part and open up as soon as we reach the double-dose targets.

Victorians deserve some good news after their sixth crippling lockdown. Picture: AFP

Victoria’s leaders are yet to reveal if we will be let out of lockdown early if we meet vaccination targets ahead of time.

Yet again, Premier Daniel Andrews and his cronies are making us an international laughing stock.

We are on track to meeting 70 and 80 per cent double dose targets by next weekend – days ahead of schedule.

And yet there is no certainty that the state’s leaders will bring forward the easing of some of the most draconian restrictions in the world.

It feels like they’re keen to keep us under their control for that little bit longer.

One analysis has us hitting the 70 per cent double-dose target by October 22 or 23, and the 80 per cent target by November 1 or 2.

Instead of over-delivering, like new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, Victorians may have to stay home even longer, locked up like naughty children.

Once vibrant, Melbourne is now a ghost town. Picture: David Geraghty

Kids need to be back at school as soon as possible and businesses need to be reopened. But what do we get from Dictator Dan? He says restrictions would ease “as close to” the actual date as possible.

Why shouldn’t the targets automatically trigger our release, which is what we’ve been promised?

Health Minister Martin Foley was even more strident, saying there were no alterations to the roadmap to be announced. “We’ve got nothing to add to the roadmap. It’s transparent,” he said.

Same goes for Education Minister James Merlino, who has ruled out any early return for school kids, even if the vaccination targets are met. It’s cruel and unnecessary.

Yet again, we have a shifting of the goalposts to suit political, not medical reasons.

On Tuesday, Sutton acknowledged the state was moving faster towards the vaccine targets, but said the high vaccine take-up levels would have to be maintained across the board for early easing of restrictions.

“We don’t want any restrictions to be in place that aren’t appropriately precautionary,” he said.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

The health system is in crisis due to the added demand of Covid patients, but it is by no means swamped.

Victoria’s reopening has been agonisingly slow. Picture: David Crosling

Doctors are not running out of oxygen and ventilators for Covid patients. Heart attack and stroke patients aren’t dying while they wait for ambulances, and doctors do not have to decide who will live and who will die, like they had to do in the UK.

It should be simple: meet the targets and get the rewards.

But Sutton appears keen to make it as complicated as possible by insisting on ongoing vaccine take-up rates.

We are tired, bored, antsy and sick of having our daily lives dictated to by our political leaders. Our reopening is agonisingly slow, not just compared to NSW but every other country in the world.

Everywhere we look, we see inequity and inconsistency in decision-making.

We still can’t go out past 9pm or go beyond 15kms and yet George Clooney and Julia Roberts – along with their families and pets – are jetting in to make a movie in Queensland.

Victorians are playing our part. We’re getting tested, we’re following the rules, we’re getting vaccinated. Now we need the politicians to keep to their word and open up our state as soon as we reach the vaccine milestones.

We’re doing our job, it’s time for them to do theirs.