More Canberrans need COVID-19 booster shots

Restrictions have largely eased, travel is back, borders are open.

Canberra's public schools have now joined their independent counterparts in lifting almost all COVID-related requirements; high schoolers no longer need to wear masks, families are allowed on campus and asymptomatic children may attend school even if someone at home has contracted the virus.

And there's more than a whiff of freedom in the air outside, what with music festivals and other large-scale events going ahead and restaurants and bars filled to bursting.

While it's by no means unusual to see people out and about wearing masks, both indoors and outdoors - there will likely not be a time when masks disappear for some time yet - the attitude throughout the general community seems to be we must get on with it.

And for an alarmingly high number of people, this seems to mean the pandemic is all but over. But, as health professionals are at pains to point out time and time again, the pandemic is far from over.

We've been listening to them all along, and we would all do well to keep on listening.

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At the weekend, we saw the alarming statistics around younger people failing to take up the third vaccine; less than 60 per cent of Canberrans aged 16 to 29 have had three doses of a vaccine, while 86 per cent of those aged between 50 and 69 have had theirs.

Meanwhile, about 70 per cent of people admitted to intensive care with the coronavirus since the start of the year had not had three doses of a COVID vaccine.

Other than the aforementioned lack of urgency, it's hard to imagine what would prevent someone from getting their - freely and widely available - booster shot.

This is especially the case when we take into account another alarming story on the weekend, that a COVID reinfection surge is well underway across the country.

The accepted wisdom has, until now, been that previous infection with COVID gives some immunity to reinfection, at least for a few months.

But as the journalist behind the story, Finn McHugh, can attest, reinfection is entirely possible, and not at all something to be shrugged off.

It's now nearly six months since the highly-infectious Omicron tore what had promised to be a leisurely Christmas apart, and immunity gained during the December explosion is beginning to wane.

The strain's subvariants have also proved to be less immune, from both vaccination or prior infection, and more and more Australians are testing positive to COVID-19 for the second time.

As has been the case all along during the pandemic, Australia is helpfully placed to observe what is happening overseas, and prepare for the inevitable, as whatever is ripping through Europe, Asia or America eventually reaches the Antipodes.

To wit: pre-Omicron data in Denmark showed reinfections accounted for around 4 per cent of new cases, but a British study in February showed that number rising to 10 per cent - the UK has now reported over 800,000 reinfections.

It's not certain that the same thing is happening in Australia, but the fact remains a third or fourth jab will dramatically reduce the likelihood of death or hospitalisation after being infected.

So, what will it take for younger people to take up the third jab as enthusiastically as we all did the first and second time round?

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