With exceptionally high levels of vaccinations, businesses up and running, schools re-opened and office workers gearing up for a return to face-to-face work, summer is shaping up to be blessedly normal and comparatively relaxed.

But the news, on Friday, that a 40-year-old man with COVID had died in intensive care, was a jarring reminder that COVID is still an ever-constant presence and threat to the unvaccinated among us.

A 40-year-old man dying in hospital of an ostensibly preventable illness? There couldn't be a more convincing reason to vaccinate oneself against said illness as soon as possible.

And yet, in our highly vaccinated territory, a small but significant cohort of adults are refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Disturbingly, more than 50 of these people are public school teachers - government employees whose job is protecting and educating our children.

Canberra is a city blessed with a majority of responsible citizens who have fronted up their droves to receive the COVID jab, to protect themselves and those around them - especially children under 12 - who cannot yet be vaccinated.

They are also, it must be said, protecting those who choose, for whatever reason, not to be vaccinated.

Herd immunity, as we know, means a majority result will have the effect of protecting the minority.

But until children can also be vaccinated, the community will not be adequately protected from the virus.

Since COVID first emerged as a global threat in early 2020, Australia has been in the strangely fortunate - if that's the word - position of observing what lies in its future.

We watched as the virus bore down on countries like China, Malaysia and Korea, before it spread through Europe, causing mass deaths in Italy, France and the UK, and over in the United States as well.

We watched mass graves being dug in New York City, and read reports of dolphins appearing the canals of Venice, as the world struggled - or, in the case of the dolphins and birds, revelled - with the changing conditions of everyday life.

And this was all before we'd even seen our first COVID case. We saw it coming, and braced ourselves for the inevitable.

And now, we are watching how COVID is playing out in the post-vaccine world.

Booster shots are visible on our horizon - further ballast against a persistent and morphing virus.

But it's also more clear than ever that COVID is now the disease of the unvaccinated.

Unlike other states and territories, the ACT government has chosen not to impose official sanctions on those who choose not to be vaccinated.

Because of our larger than average vaccination numbers - Canberra is officially one of the most vaccinated cities in the world - there has been less of an imperative to convince those who would otherwise opt out to do the right thing and get the jab.

This means that, beyond the fact that there are still people dying of COVID in the ACT, there are very few levers left for the ACT government to pull to convince the unvaccinated to change their minds.

Short of mandating the vaccine as a prerequisite for enjoying many ordinary freedoms, that is.

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