> After massive sacrifice, the country is now topping the charts in COVID deaths

You sound so out of touch with what the Australian experience has been.

Australia has had 14k deaths from COVID, vs over 1 million for the US. Percapita that is about 1/5 the deaths of the US. We've also had about 1.5 times the reported cases per capita than the US.

The strategy was to lock down until the population was vaccinated. Once that had happened, it was time to open back up again. Of course we were going to see more deaths.

Yes, the lockdowns were frustrated, yes unfortunate situationsboccurred. But going by the US stats, the response of the Australian government probably saved about 180 thousand lives.