The massive delay in the vaccination campaign in Australia

During a TV interview with BBC NewsThe former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull (the Liberal Party), has been highly critical of the current Australian government for the way it has handled the coronavirus vaccination campaign. Only 13 percent of the population has been vaccinated so far, which is very low when compared to its counterparts in other advanced economies. In Italy, by comparison, more than 50 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated.

Turnbull attributed the reasons to a failure to reserve mRNA vaccines in time, such as those from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, whose availability is limited, even if the government hopes to improve things as early as August. Turnbull . owns She said:

The real reason the lockdowns continue, with all the frustrations involved, while restrictions are lifted in other parts of the world, is simply because our government has failed to procure enough vaccines. It was a complete failure. The problem is that you can’t go back in time to fix what should have been done last year.

Like other countries, Australia initially favored the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but after restricting its use among those over 60 (for the very rare cases of circulatory problems), the government found itself with few vaccines in the mRNA to vaccinate younger sections. Of the population.

The scarcity of doses has affected the progress of the vaccination campaign, which must now be To speed up Thanks to the arrival of more large supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. However, a significant delay has accumulated, something that is unlikely to be reabsorbed, even if the Australian government wants to maintain its commitment to vaccinate all people involved by the end of the year.

Malcolm Turnbull served as Prime Minister of Australia between 2015 and 2018, when his leadership faced a challenge that led to the election of Scott Morrison, also of the Liberal Party. Morrison has ruled ever since and has received heavy criticism for running a vaccination campaign in recent months.