Australia has one of the lowest rates of COVID infections in the world.
But as a result of the pandemic, more than 4 million people are in hospital with respiratory infections and more than 3 million people have been diagnosed with COVID.
So how did we get here?
The answer lies in how our healthcare system has evolved.
The first major step was the introduction of the coronavirus vaccine, in 1996.
We started with a vaccination schedule that allowed for rapid and cheap vaccination.
Then in the mid-2000s, with the coronabiscuit vaccines available, Australia introduced a vaccination plan that had to be modified to include all of the vaccine’s components.
By the mid 2020s, the new plan had already been tweaked to include the vaccine for those who had previously had the coronaval vaccine and a new coronaviral vaccine, the coronajet, which has been in use since 2021.
Australia is now a world leader in vaccine delivery, with more than 6 million doses of the three-dose vaccine delivered to Australians annually.
As we head towards the end of the decade, we’re also on track to deliver more than 11 million doses, a massive increase over the 10 million doses that were delivered in the past four years.
Our system is now geared towards ensuring that when you have a new vaccine that is given to Australians that they get it in a timely manner, that they have the appropriate protection, and that they receive the correct amount of doses of that vaccine.
All of these measures are designed to give us the best chance of a long-term survival.
With a vaccine delivered on schedule, we’ve got the vaccine in our hands, and we’re now working to make sure that when we vaccinate people, that people receive the vaccine exactly the way they were meant to receive it.
And that’s the key thing.
If we are to ensure that we’re not having an outbreak, we need to have the correct vaccine and the right doses and the proper protection for those people who have already had the vaccine.
It’s about getting people vaccinated early, and ensuring that they’re receiving the vaccine that they were designed to receive.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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