Vaccines turn out not to be the silver bullet that solves the world’s Covid problem

No vaccine is 100% effective, and while vaccination in Australia has stepped up from its sluggish start, it will take at least the rest of this year to get the bulk of the population jabbed, during which time we remain vulnerable to new outbreaks, as we have seen in Victoria, and mutated strains of the virus.

In its May budget, the government dashed hopes for normality by indicating it would be unlikely to open our borders until at least the middle of next year. And while Australia has fared exceptionally well in terms of preventing mass