At the risk of totally blowing up this thread, Ill throw out an interesting thought experiment purely for conversation.
Let me preface all of this by saying I am NOT anti Vax and at some stage I will probably be getting, just trying to work out (nothing to do with this discussion) when is the right time to get it.
Right now in Australia, based on our current border controls, there is no need to get vaccinated from a *personal protection* point of view.
Rationale behind vaccinating Australians would include protection in the case of a quarantine outbreak and of course preparation for when international travel becomes less or unrestricted. These reasons make sense and have different levels of urgency.
Trouble is the virus is still burning through populations all over the world with varying intensity. As the virus goes through a population it will naturally mutate and evolve. We are seeing the new "UK", "SA" and "Brazilian" strains are more infectious and virulent. Im not sure that there is conclusive evidence that the current vaccines cover these (or future) strains. ***There is actually a train of thought amongst scientists (link below) that implementing the vaccine in the middle of this pandemic will actually encourage the evolution of more virulent strains*** in the same way inefficient use of antibiotics encourages bacterial "superbugs". It is likely that the vaccine will need to be taken annually like the flu shot.
So my thought experiment is this. Should Australias implementation of the vaccine take into account the anticipated (if known) timetable for international travel? To further explain what I mean I suggest that if the international gates were to be thrown open in 3 months it would make sense for all aussies to go and get the vax now, as is, but if its going to be another 3 years, wouldnt it make sense to wait and get an up to date vax in 2.5 years time with 2.5 years of development and virus revisions?
https://youtu.be/BNyAovuUxro