Israel shows how to do vaccinations right. It’s a race, and we’re behind

Australia’s policy performance on COVID-19 in 2020 was world-leading in terms of both public health and economics. Sadly, our vaccine roll-out strategy has been anything but.

I’ve spent plenty of time highlighting this in recent months. But perhaps the most instructive thing to do is compare and contrast Australia’s back-of-the-pack performance with Israel’s — which is truly world-class.

Israel has shown a sense of urgency with its vaccine strategy and roll-out.

The country has gone from having a large infection rate — including from highly contagious variants of COVID-19 — to having herd immunity within its reach. This, in turn, has allowed it to open up the economy with all the benefits that flow from that.

Australia has a lot to learn.

Just a few months ago, in mid-January, Israel had the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the world.

Israel was well ahead of most countries in signing a purchase agreement for Moderna’s high-efficacy mRNA vaccine in June 2020. Later in 2020 it made more deals with Pfizer (which also produces a very high-efficacy vaccine) and AstraZeneca.

About 57% of Israel’s population of 9 million have now received at least one dose of the vaccine. More than 48% are fully vaccinated. Life is getting back to normal. People are going to concerts and congregating in coffee shops.

Read the article by Richard Holden in The Mandarin.