Editorial: It's time to speed up the rollout of vaccines

A patient is vaccinated in Los Angeles. The United States is vaccinating at a rate of two million people a day. Photo / AP

Opinion

New Zealand has slipped back to a more normal "normality" under the pandemic, with a collective exhale of relief.

There's been days of no new community cases. The triple jolt of offshore earthquakes had a side-effect of reminding us that cooperation helps us get through.

Yet there's little doubt that last week's lockdown involved an extra level of "we're over it" frustration.

New Zealand is not alone in that, and we've had it a lot easier than other countries. Much of the world is in a twilight zone of people waiting for vaccine rollouts, while feeling increasingly fed up with disruption in their lives.

Vaccines are not the only measure that will subdue Covid-19 but real-world data is confirming previous trial results to show that the top shots are proving effective. Still, it will take time for enough people to be vaccinated globally for jabs to have a marked impact on coronavirus spread.

The past week was a particularly messy period for the Government and the health authorities. They faced a volley of vocal criticism. The public knows the threat of future outbreaks remains.

A speeded-up vaccine rollout would reassure people that progress is being made towards protection.

That may not be practical because of vaccine supplies and logistics. New Zealand and Australia have been reliant on overseas suppliers and countries. The Government is due to outline its vaccine plan soon.

Until the rollout reaches most Kiwis and there's visible signs of the operation generally, there isn't going to be an easing of background apprehension in the community.

The decision to vaccinate frontline workers and their families first was the right call. It is clearly the quickest way to at least achieve improved protection for the country.

But the stated aim for general vaccinations to start in the second half of the year now seems too leisurely from a pragmatic and political standpoint.

Auckland could suffer further MIQ breaches before then. Because the city is bearing the brunt and is important for the economy, it needs a good share of the early vaccine batches.

Ironically, the United States and Britain - which had major pandemic health disasters - are showing how to handle the vaccine rollout, doing the best of countries with large populations.

What's required from authorities is urgency and resourcefulness, public promotion, and mass vaccination sites and small, localised distribution.

Britain got off to a flying start, approving vaccines early, concentrating on single doses initially to give more people some protection, and creating unity around the operation.

The US has given jabs to more than 85 million people, has set up massive dose sites in stadiums, made use of federal workers and national guard troops, and is getting two rival pharma companies to work together to increase supplies of a one-shot vaccine. A US$1.9 trillion ($2.65t) rescue package has been voted through Congress and could be approved this week.

Of course they desperately needed a big effort after high death and case counts.

New Zealand's pandemic response last year was world leading. With vaccinations we barely register on the list of more than 100 countries that have administed at least 292 million doses.

From going hard and early on the virus, we are running a bit slow and late on vaccinations.