An arresting story emerged from America last week about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
Associated Press crunched the numbers on how many vaccinated people were dying of the sickness caused by the coronavirus.
Not many, it turns out.
No official figures are available, but AP estimated that only 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US in May were in fully vaccinated people.
That's less than one per cent, even though more than half the population has received both shots. In states like Arkansas with low vaccination rates, hospitalisations and deaths are rising.
In Australia, only one person has died this year of the illness, a returned traveller who contracted the virus in the Philippines.
But, as the emerging Sydney outbreak is demonstrating, a country with less than a quarter of its people at least partially vaccinated remains vulnerable.
For those 6 million people, the chances of death or serious illness in a COVID-19 outbreak appear to be extremely low, regardless of which vaccine they have received.
But the painfully slow rollout and vaccine hesitancy have left people's health, freedom and economic prosperity in danger.
NSW's 38-year-old Agriculture Minister, Adam Marshall, said after testing positive on Thursday that he was asymptomatic.
Two days later he posted a video from bed saying he felt like he'd been "hit by a bus".
This is a potentially serious illness, despite the lack of hospital carnage in Australia this year, and the NSW government is right to impose strict restrictions when outbreaks flare, especially given the highly infectious nature of the Delta strain.
The timing of the staggered lockdown last week meant most of Sydney was still free to travel to regional NSW and beyond on Friday evening and Saturday, before Gladys Berejiklian shut down the rest of the city.
It is easy to second-guess these decisions after the fact, but it is now beholden on Sydney residents to do the right thing.
Reports are emerging of some Sydney people arriving in the Hunter after the lockdown. This is irresponsible, and they should be referred to the police.
For those of us in the Hunter left changing travel plans, donning masks or stuck at home because we have been to Greater Sydney in the past week, it is a small price to pay for a quick return to relative normality.
ISSUE: 39,603
