Opinion Piece - The West Australian
5 August 2021
Nothing quite compares to the joy that comes from an Olympic Games.
Australia’s success so far has been remarkable, and if ever those of us back home needed a distraction like this, it was now.
Plenty of people around the world had called for these Tokyo games to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I am truly thankful those calls were not heeded.
We have seen so much to be proud of, not just from our gold medal winners but also from the determination and guts shown by the likes of distance runner Patrick Tiernan, who gave it his all in the 10,000m final before he could give no more and collapsed, eventually dragging himself over the finish line.
But if WA was a competitor at these Tokyo Olympics and COVID-19 vaccination was a sport, we wouldn’t be Patrick Tiernan, or swimming golden girls Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon.
We wouldn’t be Sam Kerr’s Matildas, who gave it their all only to be pipped by a dodgy call from the referee in their semi-final clash with Sweden.
Unfortunately, we’d be Shericka Jackson – the Jamaican sprinting star who inexplicably slowed down with 40m to run in her 200m heat thinking she had sewn up a semi-final spot.
Jackson’s casual stroll over the finish line saw her miss out on progressing to the semis by micro-seconds, and prompted Bruce McAvaney to call her “a little bit too cocky”.
Here in WA, having largely been spared the worst of COVID, perhaps we too could be accused of being a little bit too cocky.
Maybe that explains why we have the worst full vaccination rate in the Australia for those over 16 (16.83% as at August 2) and sit only narrowly behind Queensland in having just 37.67% of people who have received their first jab.
Whatever the reason, it’s not good enough. Because we can’t just keep the borders shut to keep COVID out forever.
Sooner or later, and preferably sooner, we need to become a country that is connected again. We need to get back to a way of life that gives us the freedoms to travel, interstate and overseas.
As the Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained last Friday and again yesterday, we have to learn to live with this virus – to get back to our normal way of life.
We have done a remarkable job so far. Yes, there have been vaccine supply issues, but we are now largely on top of those. Supplies will continue to rapidly grow.
I would encourage every West Australian to speak to their GP about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine – made right here in Australia – as soon as possible (I am having my second dose next week). Or the Pfizer vaccine, with supplies of that growing rapidly soon.
It’s worth bearing in mind that more than 750 million doses of AstraZeneca have been supplied globally in the past 12 months. In the UK alone, 24.7 million first doses and 22.8 million second doses had been administered as of July 14.
Were it not for the measures the Commonwealth and state governments have put in place over the past 18 months, another 30,000 Australians would have lost their lives.
We have a strong national vaccination plan. The modelling done for the Federal Government by the Doherty Institute has shown us how we can move out of the current Phase A in the Government’s four-step plan back to normality, to phases B and C.
Until we get our nation to a vaccination rate of 70 per cent (Phase B), lockdowns – hopefully short and sharp – will be the only way to deal with the Delta strain, undoubtedly the most transmissible of COVID strains we have seen.
Once above 80 per cent (Phase C), it is expected that the hospitalisation rate from COVID will fall considerably, to something like what we see with the flu.
Surely that’s enough to inspire every West Australian to go out and get vaccinated? To ensure we no longer sit last in the vaccination stakes but are at the very least on the podium?
And surely protecting yourself, your family and friends, and avoiding lockdowns that send businesses to the wall, provides more inspiration than the $300 game-show gimmick proposed by Anthony Albanese?
It was pleasing to see the WA Government this week announce a two-week vaccine blitz, starting later this month, to give 140,000 doses to West Australians aged 30-39.
As of July 31, the Commonwealth had administered 45,929 jabs at WA aged care and residential disability facilities and 582,198 at primary care sites, while WA Government clinics had jabbed 505,634 arms.
These figures show that the vaccination rollout is something we must continue to do together and is very much a shared responsibility.
We need the WA Government to hold the line and remain in lockstep with the Federal Government as part of a national team effort to bring an end to the frequent lockdowns that damage lives and livelihoods, especially when we reach phases B and C.
As my beloved Fremantle Dockers showed in their heroic win over Richmond on Sunday, it is only unwavering determination, willpower and – most of all – teamwork that is going to see us give COVID the old heave-ho and get us back the pre-pandemic way of life we all long for.