EDITORIAL: Territory can’t lose vaccines to other states

Asking the Territory to sacrifice its own vaccine progress only makes outbreaks here more likely. We can’t

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SYDNEY’S media is crying out for the rest of Australia to share their vaccines.

And while our thoughts go out to the Harbour City and we certainly hope they get on top of their current Covid-19 crisis, we in the Territory cannot afford to set our vaccine rollout back.

Asking other states to sacrifice their own progress only makes outbreaks in their cities more likely.

How would we feel if we handed over our supplies of Pfizer to NSW, only to have a major outbreak of Covid-19 in Darwin?

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We also need to recognise that it was a substantial failing on the part of the New South Wales government not to lock down early on.

When Darwin and Alice Springs both had exposure sites from Covid-19 late last month, our government sensibly went hard and went early.

Ditto for Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia with their outbreaks.

All have avoided significant levels of community transmission as a result.

A health worker prepares to inoculate a pregnant woman with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19. (Photo by Raul ARBOLEDA / AFP)

Sydney neither went hard nor early, and now their infection rates resemble more of a second wave than an outbreak.

While we recognise that the Territory is part of the Commonwealth, as some Sydneysiders have argued, that doesn’t mean we have to share the blame with other governments for their poor decision making.

Both Michael Gunner and Scott Morrison need to keep us on track.

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