Sir, – On Monday, the government of New South Wales announced plans to ease the months-long lockdown in Sydney by October 11th, if vaccination levels there reach 70 per cent. Meantime, the overall full vaccination rate for the whole of Australia stands at 42 per cent.
The other exemplar state of our once very vocal Zero-Covid campaigners – New Zealand – is now gradually walking back some of the elements of its very restrictive lockdown policy.
New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern said a few days ago she wants to make her country a world leader by achieving 90 per cent vaccination rates and is touting dates in December for this goal. A few days ago it had 37 per cent of its population fully vaccinated! Earlier this year, you could not turn on a radio station or open a newspaper without our Government being assailed for its failure to pursue a New Zealand or Australia-style zero-Covid policy, notwithstanding the practical impossibility due to our land border with the UK, and the added economic destruction it would bring to our vital, and already depleted, air and sea connectivity routes.
According to your own daily Covid tracker, 90.3 per cent of our population over 18 years of age is now fully vaccinated, and thankfully we are witnessing a rapid return to social and economic normality across the country.
When can we expect RTÉ and other media platforms to re-examine the various zero-Covid campaigners and the many other left-wing political advocates of this chimerical and very damaging policy? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’BYRNES,
Dublin 4.