WHO and many expertss advised the world not to expect a vaccine in a hurry, or at all! Trump was roundly lambasted, ridiculed , lampooned for saying there'd be one before Xmas. I don't love the guy but let's give him credit for turning out to be right.
The fact that there is a vaccine is now reason to continue restrictions towards elimination, even tho' this has been elusive nationally.

Prior to a vaccine, herd-immunity was only attainable by infection, and to allow that at a controlled rate was the path Sweden took. The first wave got right into the nursing homes, as in Victoria's second wave coming after the supposed cogniscenti claimed CV19 was eliminated after the first wave.

Only in retrospect does Sweden's approach appear wrong. However, I remain in support of it given the facts as they stood. There's still a long way to go even with a vaccine in the pipeline here and a huge impact, health and economic, yet to be felt short, mid and long-term.

Shutting borders to entire state populations on the basis of outbreaks in small areas of states only will continue to kill the economy and screw up lives and livelihoods. We need protection via quarantining from those in outbreak areas, not from entire state populations in the months ahead.

The power of the Premiers is applied parochially and with extreme prejudice because the feds (we) are paying the bill the end of it all. They get to look tough and scare our pants off about the 'deadly' virus that only deadly to the tiny proportion of the population that die with it, or because of it. That will be born out in retrospective studies (Approx 3-million die in USA annually so let's see what CV19 added in a country supposedly left entirely to its ravages by Trump)

SR,

I think that the jury is still out on this one. Sweden has without a massive lockdown controlled the virus without wrecking its economy and still fares better than most of the EU.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Compared to the other Scandinavian countries Sweden's economy has fared markedly worse. It turns out that letting the virus run amok or even just off the leash to a degree is quite detrimental to the economy of a country, just ask the Brazilian government which has seen its iron ore production slashed because of sick workers.

In what way could you possibly say the jury is out on this one? If Australia had followed Sweden's lead we would have seen over 13,000 deaths already and be looking to double that by the end of January.

SteeleRedux,

I assume the shortfall in iron ore production in Brazil is the reason Australia is getting higher prices for its iron ore exports.

SR your bland assurance that, "Compared to the other Scandinavian countries Sweden's economy has fared markedly worse", carries about as much weight as a UN assurance.

If you want to be taken seriously, do give us some REAL figures,& not some of your usual "dreamed up" figures either.

The Swedish government has decided they got it wrong, & apologised for their mistake, so your claim may be correct, but your bland assurances are worth less than the paper you could print them on.

SR,

Sweden has not fared worse than the other Nordic countries economically rather the opposite.