Australian truck drivers have blocked a major highway in the north-eastern state of Queensland in a protest against vaccine mandates and tough border restrictions, causing traffic to back up for several kilometres. The action marks a series of ongoing protests from Australians frustrated with state government COVID-19 lockdowns and mandated restrictions based on emergency public…

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr believes COVID-19 shots will be needed for the rest of people’s lives going on the history of previous pandemics. Around 64 per cent of Canberrans have had one coronavirus jab and just over 40 per cent have had two, one of the best take-ups of the vaccination program in the…

The research institute behind Australia’s COVID-19 modelling has said that the virus will be easier to control after reaching vaccination targets and they warn Aussies should be aware that hundreds of daily cases of the CCP virus should still be expected, as well as ongoing health measures. The Melbourne-based Doherty Institute issued the statement after…

Commentary After a slow start, vaccination rates have accelerated strongly in Australia, with 6,240,640 Aussies now fully vaccinated and just over half the population (52.8 percent) having at least one jab in their arm. But although Australians would like to hear that their uptake of the vaccine was world-leading, it is actually Canada’s and Spain’s…

A senior economist has said the media should not have needled Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison into saying sorry for the slow vaccination rollout. Robert Carling, an expert in Australian government affairs and senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, said the media were playing a childish “gotcha” game with the prime minister. “Needling…

One of Australia’s leading medical research institutes specialising in COVID-19 has said the country still has a long way to go before achieving herd immunity. Modelling (pdf) from the Burnet Institute on the Victorian second wave suggested the vaccination threshold should be around 60-80 percent of the population, assuming the vaccines have 50 percent efficacy…

Commentary In an illuminating op-ed published in The Epoch Times, Tshung Chang purports to explain why the COVID-19 vaccination program in Australia is proceeding slowly. Only 1.94 million out of 25 million Australians are fully vaccinated, which is 7.7 percent of the population. This places Australia near the bottom of OECD countries that have embarked…

Commentary Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison—with the support of the state premiers and territory chief ministers—is set to make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for aged care workers. This is despite protests from the West Australian President of the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Mark Olson. He wrote to the prime minister last week, after a poll…

MELBOURNE, Australia—The Australian Grand Prix has been canceled after local organizers and Formula One couldn’t come up with a compromise over Australia’s strict travel and quarantine issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race was postponed from its original season-opening spot on the F1 calendar on March 21 and had been rescheduled for Nov. 21….

Pfizer vaccines could be available to Australians under 40 as early as September or October, the head of the COVID-19 vaccine task force said on Tuesday. Lieutenant-General John Frewen told reporters that currently, there was a limited amount of imported Pfizer vaccines and an abundance of locally-made AstraZeneca. Therefore the current age group priorities would…