Thread by @Telegraph

🏖️ As Britain’s healthcare system gasped for air in January, Australians were hitting the beach.

🇦🇺 Many credited Australia's zero-Covid strategy

"Today, zero-Covid has backfired" writes @Louis_Ashworth

🔓This article is currently free to read
telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…

🔒As major economies reopen, Sydney has been plunged into its strictest lockdown since the start of the pandemic.

"It is bleeding billions of dollars a week as tourism, hospitality and construction remain closed"

The total number of people having to stay at home has reached 13 million.

📉Scott Morrison is now coming under increasing pressure to end zero-Covid to save the A$2 trillion economy

🇦🇺Part of the issue is Australia's slow vaccine roll out.

As countries scrambled to secure a stockpile of shots last year, Canberra chose not to race.

💉They gambled on just AstraZeneca and a vaccine then under development at the University of Queensland

The Queensland vaccine proved a flop, while the AstraZeneca vaccine is still fighting off reputational damage after being found to cause blood clots in an extreme minority of cases.

❌As a result, supply shortages have been severe.

"Early success in suppressing cases helped breed a reticence towards vaccines"

🪧A strong anti-vaxx movement has also emerged

"The country now faces the possibility that its gamble has gone awry, and it must face the fearsome Delta variant with much of its population exposed" writes @Louis_Ashworth

“Delta is a new beast,” says Professor Robert Booy, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Sydney

🗣️“It's getting to the point where lockdowns find it very difficult to work. They still can work, but it's a real, real challenge”

"What Australia has learned is that a zero-Covid strategy doesn’t work unless the whole world takes part"

Read more from @Louis_Ashworth 👇
telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…