History will look kindly on Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout despite its troubled start, as it tracks towards some of the highest vaccination rates in the world, a leading immunisation expert says.

Back in July, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the vaccination program as the biggest “black-and-white failure of public administration” he could recall.  

Given the double-dose vaccination rate languished at 8% of adults, he wasn’t alone.

Fast-forward three months and Australia has now fully vaccinated 54% of people aged 16 and up and partly vaccinated 78%.