Covid-19 Australia: Australia’s vaccine rollout must be Olympic standard

Every Australian who wants to be vaccinated MUST be able to receive their jabs before November 1. After that, the nation must open up – for good.

Today our proud nation sits high on the ladder of Olympic glory, with 33 medals, 14 of them Gold.

Yet in the biggest race of all – the fight for our freedom – we’re lagging behind the rest of the world.

Our country has fully vaccinated only 15.11 per cent of the population, compared with 59.3 per cent in Israel, 59.2 per cent in Canada, 57.0 per cent in the United Kingdom, 50.1 per cent in the United States. We even lag behind Turkey on 32.7 per cent and Kazakhstan, which has 20.15 per cent of its population vaccinated.

As our athletes do us proud, and fatigued and frustrated Australians endure overwhelming strains on their lives, we must ignite our famous national spirit and unite when it matters most.

The time for excuses is over.

The path to ending lockdowns, border closures and a crippling impact on our lives requires dramatic change to accelerate our vaccine rollout – and faster than the current rate.

The economic toll has been catastrophic. So far lockdowns across Australia since March 2020 have cost $60bn, a figure that mounts rapidly every day.

Today we step up our Call to Arms campaign by holding our leaders to account with a plan to end lockdowns.

Every Australian who wants to be vaccinated MUST be able to receive their jabs before November 1. After that, the nation must open up – for good.

The country cannot afford endless lockdowns and border closures to protect people who won’t protect themselves.

Why should people who have been vaccinated in the national interest be penalised by the inaction of others? We should respect the targets set by our best scientific minds, but they should not be used as an unachievable goal which provides excuses to remain shackled and devastate our economy.

Australians should be given the choice to vaccinate. If they choose not to, then they may miss out as businesses in travel, hospitality, sport and the arts seek to mandate to only accept the vaccinated.

When we launched Call to Arms on July 13, we urged Australians to urgently get the jab, for our leaders to end petty bickering and put the national interest first. But tiresome state parochialism still overrides the unity we desperately need to overcome this pandemic.

We’re making steady progress, despite inadequate supplies, and vaccination rates are gradually improving.

We need more vaccines, faster and in far more locations and bigger hubs. We need purpose-built quarantine facilities to be expedited.

Yes, it IS a race. And the slower we go, the more pain we feel. We need to motivate Australians to restore the greatest reward of all: our freedoms.

We need to neutralise vaccine hesitancy with better, clearer messaging from medical authorities to build confidence that vaccines save lives and far outweigh the minimal risks. We must be strong, positive, united, proactive and work as a nation to find real, workable solutions.

Let’s make our vax ladder as impressive as our medal tally.

Originally published as Covid-19 Australia: Australia’s vaccine rollout must be Olympic standard