Australia's struggle with the delta variant.
Australia's struggle with the delta variant.
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DOI：
10.1016/s1473-3099(21)00579-x
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发表时间：
2021-10
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Kenyon G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kenyon G
医学专家正在敦促澳大利亚联邦和州政府针对COVID-19采取类似麻疹的策略，即未来爆发疫情，但不会通过足够的免疫力、持续使用口罩和改善通风来持续。这种方法与新南威尔士州政府使用的方法相反，“新南威尔士州政府似乎试图模仿英国，但并非每个人都同意这种方法”，悉尼新南威尔士大学Kirby研究所生物安全研究项目负责人Raina MacIntyre说。“我们可能以控制麻疹的方式控制COVID-19，麻疹是一种传染性更强的病毒。澳大利亚已经成功地用疫苗控制了麻疹和脊髓灰质炎，”麦金太尔说。澳大利亚接种疫苗的速度比许多国家慢，这主要是由于澳大利亚严重依赖来自欧洲的牛津-阿斯利康疫苗，加上国内政治影响物流，以及与牛津-阿斯利康疫苗相关的罕见血液凝固病例报告有关的疫苗犹豫。目前，澳大利亚主要为60岁以上的人使用牛津-阿斯利康疫苗，为60岁以下的人使用辉瑞-BioNTech疫苗。Moderna疫苗将在未来使用。MacIntyre将澳大利亚过去18个月的COVID-19应对措施与亚洲国家进行了比较，这些国家的公共卫生措施和封锁“基本上被民众接受”。这与英国和美国等其他民主国家不同，在这些国家，人们更多地追求个人自由。主要由于该等严格的公共卫生措施及澳洲的地理位置，澳洲于二零二零年录得的COVID-19病例及死亡人数相对较少，而传染性较强的三角洲病毒株于二零二一年令封城措施成效较低。截至撰写本文时，在一个拥有2570万人口的国家，全国记录的病例刚刚超过59000例，死亡1036例。新南威尔士州在6月爆发了一次小规模的三角洲变种疫情，当时的封锁措施很弱，导致病毒在整个悉尼蔓延到其他城市和新西兰。这导致了新南威尔士州目前的情况，该州大部分地区目前处于持续的严格封锁状态，居家命令将持续至少13周，直到9月底。澳大利亚当局动用军队和警察在悉尼西部和南部一些受影响最严重的地区执行居家措施的举动，引起了一个基本上顺从的国家的强烈反对。军队被派往该市一些最贫困的地区，那里居住着来自越南、伊朗和伊拉克等国的大型移民社区。在悉尼较富裕地区过去的疫情中，军队没有使用。
Medical experts are urging the Australian federal and state governments to aim for a measleslike strategy for COVID-19, whereby future outbreaks occur but do not become sustained through sufficient immunity, ongoing use of face masks, and improved ventilation. This approach is counter to that being used by the New South Wales (NSW) State Government “that appears to be trying to emulate the UK, but not everyone agrees with this approach”, said Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Research Programme at the Kirby Institute, University of NSW, Sydney.“We may feasibly achieve control of COVID-19 in the same way we have with measles, a more contagious virus. Australia has successfully controlled measles and polio with vaccines”, MacIntyre said. Australia was slower than many countries to vaccinate people, largely due to its heavy reliance on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Europe, combined with internal politics affecting logistics, as well as vaccine hesitancy related to reports about rare cases of blood clotting linked to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Currently, Australia is using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine primarily for people older than 60 years and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those younger than 60 years. The Moderna vaccine will be used in the future. MacIntyre compares Australia’s COVID-19 response over the past 18 months to countries in Asia where public health measures and lockdowns “are largely accepted by the population”. This is unlike other democracies, such as the UK and the USA, where people pushed more for individual freedoms. Largely due to these strict public health measures and Australia’s geographical position, Australia experienced relatively few COVID-19 cases and deaths in 2020, before the more infectious delta strain made lockdowns less effective in 2021. As of writing, there have been just over 59 000 cases recorded nationally and 1036 deaths in a country with a population of 25· 7 million people. NSW had a small outbreak of the delta variant in June, which was responded to with weak lockdown measures, resulting in the virus spreading throughout Sydney, to other cities, and to New Zealand. This led to the current situation in NSW, wherein most of the state is now in an ongoing strict lockdown with stay-at-home orders to last for at least 13 weeks until the end of September. The move by Australian authorities to use the army, as well as the police, to enforce stay-at-home measures in some of the most affected areas of western and southern Sydney led to a backlash from a largely compliant nation. The army was sent into some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city where large migrant communities from countries including Vietnam, Iran, and Iraq live. The army was not used in past outbreaks in more affluent areas of Sydney.