Incentives or bribes? How best to vaccinate the nation

I wholeheartedly agree with Judith Sloan (“Grandkids won’t thank us for flawed Treasury advice”, 3/8) and Shitij Kapur (“Vaccination only way out of our golden cage ‘trap’ ”, 3/8).

The virus will not go away until most of us are immune, either through exposure or widespread vaccination, no matter how long we lock people in their homes or how much money we hand out. I wonder how many hospitals, quarantine facilities and low-cost houses, not to mention viral research, could have been funded in lieu of the $120,000 to $200,000 it cost per job “saved”. Had we not panicked in the first instance due to advice and channelled our resources to the old and sick rather than paying people to stay home, we could have most at-risk people vaccinated by now.

Instead the pain is dragging on for years and saddling our next generations with enormous debt. Health bureaucrats and politicians cannot guarantee our safety and should admit it, first to themselves and then to us.

Jennifer Mullins, Mollymook, NSW

I am a proud Australian, and have worked both overseas and here for the past 40 years. People from other countries would quite often compliment me on how well Australia had done something. I always responded, “We have a small population, but a lot of very smart people.” I wonder where these people are today?

I watched the BBC news as Britain welcomed its Olympians back from Tokyo, with massive crowds, no masks and no quarantine required. We send our fully vaccinated (and no doubt regularly tested for Covid) Olympians to the desert. Thanks for your efforts, Olympians, have a nice time for two weeks in substandard quarantine.

Can someone please explain why returning overseas travellers, who are fully vaccinated and are required to complete at least two negative Covid tests, are required to quarantine in hotels for 14 days when Sydneysiders who are unvaccinated and mostly untested who catch Covid are allowed to quarantine at their homes?

Successful people copy world’s best practice. If you want to motivate Australians to get vaccinated, properly reward those who do so by allowing them to return to Australia and quarantine at home – and not for 14 days. Look around the world and follow best practice. Set some proper, crystal-clear goals for Australians, not some vague promise of freedom in years to come.

Ross Jackson, Terrey Hills, NSW

To show how far we have come or not come as a nation, we now have Labor leader Anthony Albanese advocating a $300 payment to be vaccinated against Covid. Talk about being a nanny state and continuing to live in the age of entitlement. Fancy expecting the government to pay you $300 to do something that could very well save your life and countless others. It makes you wonder just where it all went wrong. I would start by saying that Australians in general like being dictated to and supported financially by big government. Big government stifles aspiration and government response to Covid has only reinforced this reality.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

What’s the problem with Anthony Albanese’s offer of $300 for completed vaccinations? The negative, mealy-mouthed responses from government ministers simply reflects that they have done such a bad job of the rollout and can’t tolerate the opposition coming up with a positive idea to improve the situation. Isn’t the real issue getting the jabs done faster, so anything that is an incentive should be welcomed?

W. McNamara, Nedlands, WA

For many months now I have scratched my head over some of chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young’s decisions regarding our Covid response in Queensland (“Young won’t back away from AZ warning”, 3/8). I understand she has to make lots of difficult decisions and no one will agree with them all.

However, her refusal to amend her statement regarding the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the under-60s is beyond understanding. No one wants anyone to die but how will she face the families of otherwise healthy young people when they end up in ICU or worse because she scared them out of getting vaccinated? I don’t want to see anyone of any age die from a disease that has a vaccine because a doctor is too proud to admit they spoke rashly.

Susan Kurth, Rochedale South, Qld