The reopening plan includes ditching mandatory masks on public transport and in shops, which means leaving one of the best forms of protection up to individual preference and knowledge. Some people will know that the risk of catching the virus is far higher indoors, but others won't. The move undermines a useful tool (mask-wearing) targeting a problem area (indoor transmission).
Also out the door would be social distancing restrictions.
Government ministers in the UK say that jabs have provided strong protection - for the 65 per cent of adults double vaccinated - against hospitalisation and death from the virus. They maintain the best chance for reopening is in the northern summer while schools are closed and hospitals are under less pressure.
Vaccination appears to have severed the link between infections and serious outcomes. But many people still require doses and could have their health put at greater risk. Some UK health experts have called the plans dangerous and premature. A poll by Ipsos Mori for the Economist shows two-thirds of people would like some restrictions to continue for a month after July 19.
From this distance, a broad all-or-nothing approach to Covid reopening simply doesn't seem smart.
Most people here would see the need for any easing of restrictions to be gradual, and after vaccination has been completed. They would be against a much higher level of personal risk while the virus is still a threat.
Some politicians in Britain and Australia have argued that because the coronavirus is endemic and will stick around, countries can't let it put economic and public life on hold and the onus should be put on personal responsibility.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said of his four-part reopening blueprint, that by phase three Covid would be treated like the flu or "any other infectious disease".
In Australia, the talk of "living with the virus" in the near future seems moot at present with low vaccination levels, lockdowns and outbreaks. New South Wales recorded 77 new cases on Sunday.
Australian Medical Association President Dr Omar Khorshid said Covid has to be eliminated before reopening and full vaccination is "the only way out".
Of course, slow vaccination rollouts here and in Australia mean most people have little choice but to be patient and wait for the chance to use that protection to travel.
Responsible governments will have to continue for some time to try to keep variants out in practical ways with vaccines, border and health rules.
The key question is how that can be done in a targeted, effective, way that balances health safety and personal wants once vaccination is completed.
