© REUTERS/Loren Elliott
Police officers speak with a member of the public during a law enforcement operation to prevent anti-lockdown protesters from gathering. Sydney, Australia.
Australia should be on top of the pandemic but tough, random lockdowns, a snail-paced vaccine rollout and international borders closed into 2022 cause widespread misery and confusion.
Scott Morrison, before he became Prime Minister of Australia, was something of a marketing guru, best known for a controversial and short-lived international tourism campaign that begged the question from bemused foreigners, "Where the bloody hell are ya?" In the same spirit, we now have to ask Scotty from Marketing, "What the bloody hell are ya up to?"
One Sydney shopkeeper and artist
summed it up in a handwritten sign:
"Dear loyal customers, We will be closed till early 2023 because Scott, front of the queue, Morrison f***ed up our vaccination roll out. We thank you for your patience".
And the note's author, James Powditch is not my only frustrated compatriot. Because Australia is in a mess. A bloody great coronavirus-shaped shambles and the rest of the world, frankly, is starting to think that Morrison and his mates haven't got a clue about what they are doing, that they're a few kangaroos short in the top paddock, as we might say back home.
While nations across the world immunize millions of people, even after some disastrously slow starts,
Australia has just 26.9% of its population over the age of 16 fully vaccinated, with the target of 70% not expected to be met until early November.
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