OPINION | The palpable anger over the speed of the vaccine rollout raises an important question: what happens if the rollout is done but our COVID-19 problems are not?, writes Waleed Aly
It would be too cynical to say this is entirely political. The boosted lockdown payments, for example, are probably essential in any attemptas our biggest city sinks further into an indeterminate lockdown.
But it’s worth noting that the apology changes nothing material. It isn’t a policy. It doesn’t speed up the rollout. It’s a symbolic act of submission to popular anger. Governments only do that when they register the anger is real.That anger is worth thinking about.
But take Singapore, which is similar to us in not manufacturing the Pfizer vaccine, and not having special access to it by being a part of the EU or sharing a border with the US. That could change — indeed it is falling as a result of the current outbreaks — given children under 12 currently cannot receive the vaccine, we’d probably need that to get frighteningly close to zero. And while it might be tempting to say, in the Victorian premier’s phrase that “we wouldn’t be having lockdowns to protect people who weren’t prepared to protect themselves”, this ignores that a good number of the unvaccinated will likely be children..
Sure, that may not happen. Perhaps Britain’s experience will be a triumph and we’ll all follow its lead at lower vaccination rates. Perhaps the virus will quickly evolve into something far less deadly. And we, as citizens, feel a general impatience and anger because deep down we assumed we’d beaten this. In each case, there’s a false mythology at play.
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