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Some of you may have heard the expression "You had one job...".
Well, it seems to me the vaccine roll-out across Australia and the world is one pretty important job.
So my faith in humanity has again been tempered by the inability of our own government, as well as those in Europe, to get the vaccines to the people.
Why it took so long to get approved in Australia and why we have not sourced more is beyond me when vaccines really are the key to getting back to normal.
I was contacted this week by a concerned resident who had just done her COVID appointment check online.
"I did the questions and came up as a 1b, as did my partner. It said starting March 22. I rang the doctors and was told they are not doing it, try hospital, so rang the hospital, they knew nothing about the rollout. Bit of a mess!"
She updated me the day after to say the hospital told her they don't have the vaccine and training had not begun yet and no staff or 1a people have been injected yet. She was told to wait and wait for local notifications.
Then there's this apparent much-to-do-about nothing with AstraZeneca vaccine when the evidence suggests the number of people who got blood clots after the vaccine are actually less than normally experienced per head of population without any vaccine.
I have been flabbergasted to see the ongoing delaying by European health authorities, who now are entering a third wave and even the nay-saying in this country.
Come on people, sure we need to err on the side of caution, but keep saving lives by rolling out the vaccine.
And in Australia, the federal government needs to focus on getting the roll-out going. It's not good enough to say targets aren't being met.
I have more faith in the state governments and their ability to handle it.
Speaking of faith in humanity, mine was buoyed last week when a group of 10 or so women from Kangaroo Island decided to join the March 4 Justice.
They staged their own march down the main street calling for an end to violence against women and greater accountability from political leaders.
This might not seem like a big deal but in a small, conservative community, standing up for what you believe in should be admired.
It's the same with the Island school students who marched for greater action on climate change.
Sometimes, speaking out is what it takes to make change. Others get left behind.
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