End-of-year vaccination rate of 80pc ‘key to taming virus’

An 80pc vaccination rate is achievable by year’s end if a vaccine for children is approved, the Grattan Institute says.

People queue for Covid testing or a vaccine in Roseville, Sydney. Picture: Gaye Gerard

National cabinet should set a year-end vaccination target of 80 per cent of all Australians, including 95 per cent of those over 70, to help “tame” Covid-19 and return to a life of open borders and no lockdowns, a new report urges.

The report by think tank the Grattan Institute says an 80 per cent target is achievable by the end of 2021 provided a vaccine is approved for children. If not, the target date could stretch out to the end of March next year.

It argues governments must act to increase the take-up rate, including offering vaccine passports for interstate travel and entry to venues from November, along with a $10m-a-week lottery for which only vaccinated Australians would be eligible.

And once 80 per cent is achieved, quarantining for fully vaccinated Australians and hard lockdowns should end, though some less stringent containment measures such as mask wearing should continue.

“About 90 per cent of Australians have consistently said they want a vaccine. The task for governments is not to convert ­entrenched anti-vaxxers, but to get shots in the arms of people who want them, and to convince those who are hesitant to get vaccinated sooner rather than later,” the report, Race to 80: Our Best Shot at Living with Covid, says.

“We can reach 80 per cent vaccine coverage by the end of the year if a vaccine is approved for children under 12. Otherwise, we should aim to reach 80 per cent by the end of March 2022, by vaccinating a higher share of adults.”

 

While Australia has managed to escape the worst impacts of the pandemic by adopting a zero Covid approach, the report says, including an extremely low death rate and a short-lived economic downturn, there has been a heavy price paid in terms of individual liberties.

“Australians have supported a hardline approach, but they are also tired and frustrated,” it says.

“National cabinet must now tread a fine line. On the one hand, we cannot abandon our zero Covid strategy too early and risk the calamity we have so far avoided. But on the other hand, we cannot remain walled inside Fortress Australia indefinitely, cut off from the rest of the world and periodically cut off from one another.”

The report comes as NSW ­reported a record 239 cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, and moved to impose tighter restrictions across more of Sydney. Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been criticised for not learning from the mistakes of Victoria last year and moving to tougher restrictions earlier, particularly given the higher infectiousness of the Delta variant.

 

Grattan Institute economist Tom Crowley said the path to an 80 per cent vaccination rate would take leadership. “Governments really need to urgently set both a target and a time frame to achieve it so they can take the public with them over the next few months, and also so they can hold themselves accountable, because the path forward to that vaccination rate will be a difficult one,” Mr Crowley said.

The report also urges state and federal governments to mandate vaccinations for essential workers by the start of next year, including aged-care and disability care workers, teachers and hospital staff.

One of the keys to Australia being able to successfully emerge from lockdown was to speed up the rate of vaccination. “(Governments should) make it as easy as possible to get a vaccine by ­expanding state vaccination hubs and opening new local outlets,” it says.