In the first pre-vaccine phase of the epidemic, Australia showed the way to keep the virus at bay but is now in danger of being left far behind Europe and the United States in getting the population vaccinated.

On the latest figures, 14 of every 100 Australians have been vaccinated. That puts us 77^th in the global list, far below not just the UK and the US but also Canada, Russia, Germany, Denmark and virtually every other European country.

It's true that we are just above Japan and South Korea (let alone some of the poorest countries on the planet) but no prosperous country is doing as badly. Australia is nearer the bottom of the list than the top.

In the United Kingdom, 91 of every hundred people have been vaccinated and life there is returning to normal. They are talking about holidays abroad and about foreign tourists coming in, along with their spending.

In many Australians' minds, there may be a false choice: do we keep the country closed or do we open the borders and let the epidemic back in to run rife.

Other countries are vaccinating far more people. This is not an accident. It is a result of government decisions.

It is a false choice because, firstly, the coronavirus can't be kept out - Melburnians know that - and, secondly, vaccination closes the epidemic down. It's the way to get back to the easy ways we knew before this ghastly virus struck. It also allows all those split families suffering in quiet pain to be reunited.

You can't blame Australians for being slow to take up the vaccines which are already available. The message from the government has been confusing. It has made it clear that the border won't open for another year so many Australians may well say there is no urgency to getting vaccinated today.

But the big reason to get vaccinated is get such a high proportion of the population immune to the disease that it ceases spreading. The best scientific estimate is that at least 75 per cent of the population need to be vaccinated before this herd immunity can occur. With three in four of us immune, the virus doesn't spread and the epidemic peters out even when the borders open.

The emerging statistics indicate that vaccination does make a substantial number of people immune from actually getting COVID (and not just from getting it but without symptoms). If they don't actually catch the disease, they can't pass it on.

The federal government has not hammered this message home. There is talk now of an advertising campaign - "a comprehensive communication campaign", as it's put.

We certainly need that. But we may need more. There need to be advantages now to getting vaccinated and not only an advantage at some indeterminate time way into the future.

If people had proof of vaccination - vaccine passports - and that gave them easier, unrestricted travel, that might help. There may be a suspicion that Mr Morrison is making a political calculation that with an election on the horizon, the border cannot and will not open before, so there's no rush to get the population vaccinated.

We hope he disabuses the sceptics of that suspicion and starts to move the vaccination drive up the priority list.

The prime minister has said that there's no point targeting different groups with adverts if they aren't eligible for shots.

But the fact remains: other countries are vaccinating far more people. This is not an accident. It is a result of government decisions. The government should up its game - urgently.