The Australian vaccination campaign is a disaster

CANBERRA – The vaccination campaign in Australia is going very badly: so far only 15% of people have been vaccinated compared to the target announced by the government a few weeks ago.

The BBC also continues, in fact, compared to the good intentions to conduct four million vaccines against the Coronavirus by March 31, at the moment only about 600,000 vaccines have been conducted.

A deficit of 85% (and 3.4 million doses) did not fail to elicit criticism from Australian authorities and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who did not, however, specify the reasons for the slow pace of vaccination.

For example, Anthony Albanese, president of the opposition Labor Party, said: “Here again is an example of how Morrison is always good at advertising, but poor at putting it into practice.”

The goals have changed

Earlier this month, the government had to revise its targets, shifting 4 million people by the end of April, adding that it aims to vaccinate six million people by mid-May. He also trimmed his promise to fully vaccinate every Australian by October: the promise now is that “everyone will get their first dose by October.”

Although the government said last week that the advancement of the vaccination campaign did not require special urgency, given the low infection rates in the country, the city of Brisbane has been forced in recent days to close due to an outbreak of the disease in a health facility, a fact that has reignited discussions about the importance of the rapid vaccination campaign. .

Acceleration is coming

As in many other countries accused of some slowness – particularly in Europe – the government has now announced that the situation is changing. On Wednesday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said 72,826 doses were administered within 24 hours, bringing the total number to 670,000. “This shows that the national vaccination program is accelerating completely the way it was planned,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the country continues to theorize about the reason for the delay, and amid the refusal of vaccination and problems with the reservation system, some are questioning whether the European Union’s ban on exporting 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca has affected: the possibility that the Australian government has always denied.