Australia vaccine rollout mocked by New York Times podcast The Daily

Australia’s vaccine rollout has been used as an example of ‘what not to do’ as the rest of the world laughs at our embarrassing turnaround.

Australia’s vaccination program has become the case study of what not to do when dealing with Covid-19.

The New York Times podcast The Daily, explained how Australia went from being almost Covid-19 free and the envy of the globe to being a laughing stock in the United States and United Kingdom.

Science journalist Carl Zimmer’s explanation hinged on the recent surges in case numbers and local transmissions caused by the Delta strain.

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A July 4 parade in New York. Americans are celebrating this weekend to mark Independence Day with parades, fireworks, barbecues and other celebrations. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

“It’s interesting that a country like Australia is relatively wealthy but does not have a great vaccine supply,” Zimmer said on The Daily.

“One of the reasons is that they thought they had this covered. They thought their very strict, rigorous public health measures – contract tracing, testing, very, very strict limits on travel – it was working.

“They had incredibly low rates, life was normal in Australia. So they thought, ‘We can take our time with vaccination because we’ve got this big wall keeping the virus out,’ but then the virus came over the wall and they didn’t have their vaccines ready.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian removes her face mask to speak during a COVID-19 update Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

A man receiving a Covid-19 test in Sydney while the city remains in lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Australia also has an extremely poor rate of people vaccinated. There is only seven per cent of the community completely vaccinated. This compares to about 47 per cent of the population in the US who are vaccinated, and 51 per cent of the population in the UK.

It comes as Sydney grapples with a significant outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant.

NSW authorities revealed on Wednesday intensive care doctors are treating seven Covid-19 patients, including a person aged in their 30s. Two of the ICU patients are on ventilators. Another 30 people have been hospitalised with the coronavirus. Eight of these are under the age of 35.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said those numbers should be a “wake-up call”.