Good morning, it's Monday, July 18. Here's what you need to get going today.
One thing to know right now: there are fears millions of COVID vaccine doses could go to waste
Here's the lowdown from political reporter Tom Lowrey:
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Early in the pandemic, the federal government began placing orders for what would eventually be hundreds of millions of vaccine doses.
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The government ordered in large numbers in case some didn't work out.
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Now, there are likely to be tens of millions in surplus, including almost all of the 51 million Novavax doses purchased by the government.
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The government ordered the Novavax doses in late 2020 but after significant delays the vaccine was late to the rollout and less than 200,000 doses have been used.
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The government is now wondering what to do with all the extra doses.
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Dr Deborah Gleeson from La Trobe University says wealthy countries like Australia may have ordered too much, and wants a more restrained approach when it comes to boosters:
"Australia really needs to commit to not holding doses in future."
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Professor Brendan Crabb from the Australian Global Health Alliance says the orders were understandable, but lessons should be learned:
"There's nothing more tragic than to literally throw out life-saving vials of vaccine."
News while you snoozed
Let's get you up to speed.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired the country's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova and state security service chief Ivan Bakanov — who is also a childhood friend of Mr Zelenskyy's. The president said more than 60 of their employees had been working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
- An investigation into the Uvalde school shooting that killed 21 people in the US has found nearly 400 officers attended the scene but law enforcement "failed to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety".
The news Australia is searching for
- Cameron Smith: The Australian golfer has claimed his first major title at the 150th British Open at St Andrews in Scotland. Starting his final round four shots back from leaders Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, Smith shot a final-round 8-under 64 to surge to the top of the leaderboard and lift the Claret Jug.
- Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck: The celebrity couple obtained a marriage licence in Las Vegas on the weekend. The pair — nicknamed 'Bennifer' — have recently rekindled their romance almost 20 years after they first got together. The marriage license was issued by Clark County in the state of Nevada, and was dated Saturday, July 16, but it's not clear whether the two have officially tied the knot.
One more thing: a new report has found TikTok is harvesting your data
A new technical analysis produced by an Australian cyber security company Internet 2.0 has found TikTok seeks almost complete access to the contents of a phone while the app is in use.
Robert Potter, who edited the report, says the alarming amount of information being collected led his team to conclude data harvesting was occurring in China at an industrial scale.
Here's an excerpt from the report:
For the TikTok application to function properly, most of the access and device data collection is not required. This leads us to believe that the only reason this information has been gathered is for data harvesting.
It is also notable that the device only needs to ask the user for permission to perform each of these actions once and then follow the user’s preferences. The application, however, has a culture of persistent access or continuously asking for a decision reversal by the user.
Tiktok insists it's not unique in the amount of information it collects and that, in line with industry practices, it collects information that users choose to provide and information that helps the app function, operate securely, and improve the user experience.
That's it for now
We'll be back later on with more.
ABC/wires
