大象传媒

Australia has been seen as a success story when it comes to controlling the spread of the coronavirus and was praised by US official Dr Anthony Fauci as being a world leader in 鈥渃ontainment and management of emerging variants鈥�. The country had zero deaths from locally acquired Covid-19 infections during the first half of 2021 and has seen fewer than 1,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. But a new outbreak of the Delta variant has thrown Sydney into lockdown and cases continue to rise, prompting other states to accuse New South Wales of not locking down fast enough or hard enough. The national government in Canberra has been criticised for one of the slowest vaccine rollouts among industrialised countries and reports of rare blood clots linked to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab have left many confused as to which age groups should take it. So what went wrong with Australia's 'gold standard' response to Covid-19? As anti-lockdown protesters take to the streets, why is the policy failing to bring down cases in Sydney? Has Delta changed the game and could vaccine hesitancy delay any return to normal? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of expert guests.