News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The Sweden experiment: how no lockdowns led to mental health, healthier economy. Parent comment

Re:The Sweden experiment: how no lockdowns led to mental hea... by nl on Sunday August 22, 2021 @11:31PM (#28272065)
Australia sacrificed international travel too. It still leaked in which led to occasional limited lockdowns. Until Delta strain hit and spread too fast for the small lockdown strategy to contain it.

Australia screwed up the vaccination strategy. They bought AstraZeneca and relied on a domestic vaccine that was being developed which failed in trials.

Then the AZ side effects became an issue and there was no backup plan.

But even the AZ rollout was a debacle with no one sure if they were eligible or how to get it. And the Prime Minster excusing it all by saying "it's not a race".

If Australia had the vaccination rate of the US or the UK (which was absolutely achievable) then Australia would still be the envy of the world.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Sweden experiment: how no lockdowns led to mental hea... by ajdlinux on Monday August 23, 2021 @01:53AM (#28272685)
> Australia screwed up the vaccination strategy. They bought AstraZeneca and relied on a domestic vaccine that was being developed which failed in trials.

New Zealand also screwed up vaccinations by not buying AstraZeneca - as evidenced by the fact that they're several percentage points behind Australia and constrained by Pfizer supplies from overseas with no ability to rely on domestic or Australian manufacturing.

Australia ordered AZ from overseas, AZ manufactured locally, Pfizer, Novavax and now Moderna (as well as the UQ vaccine which as you mentioned failed).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Sweden experiment: how no lockdowns led to mental hea... by nl on Monday August 23, 2021 @02:16AM (#28272783)
The issues with the non-AZ vaccines was that they didn't lock in early supply dates soon enough. For example, in June (which was already late for what was needed) Australia only had 1.7M Pfizer doses available[1] and now the PM is putting out press releases about obtaining extra supply from Poland[2].

Australia needed the doses in April/May, not September/October.

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-09/australia-to-get-pfiz...

[2] https://www.health.gov.au/news/vaccine-operations-centre-wee...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Sweden experiment: how no lockdowns led to mental hea... by ajdlinux on Monday August 23, 2021 @02:25AM (#28272829)
I'm not saying the Australian rollout has been good. I'm just saying it's been better than New Zealand.
[ Parent | on HN ]