I live in the UK, and I can tell you we pretty much had Covid tapped down to very low levels in the spring. We were at 1,500 daily cases (which is about 7,500 equivalent for the US) for several weeks in a row, and the vaccination program has been a huge success.

Luckily for the last several weeks, they have accelerated vaccinations to younger people and the uptake has been fantastic here in the UK. But the situation in Australia could be gruesome. They just have tried to wall off their country. In fact, if you are Australian abroad (tax paying with passport), you cannot come home for all practical purposes. They limit how many can come in, so there are hardly any flights. The tickets are obscenely expensive and you have to pay to quarantine in a govt hotel for i think 14 days. We have friends here that want to go home with their kids, and their best estimate is it would cost 25K or more, and its impractical. Imagine quarantining with young kids for 2 weeks in 1 hotel room? How disgusting is that? What is the point of a passport if you can't travel home?

Anyway, if anyone need a memo on why to get the vaccine, the Delta variant is going to make it pretty obvious. The UK is bending but not breaking, and I think we will be fine in the end. But our issue is they haven't approved it yet for teenagers, and that is the big risk group right now. Schools are having lots of cases, and we just have to hold on for 2 more weeks for summer break. But just as we think we are getting past it, something else comes up. Hopefully the US will be able to contain it, but I'm a bit pessimistic based on the UK/Alpha variant hitting the US hard 2 months after hitting the UK very hard.
[Post edited by 98Cav at 06/28/2021 05:32AM]