Health
While the United States likes to describe itself as the leader of the free world, the coronavirus pandemic has hit it just as hard, if not worse, than many developing nations.
No-one knows this better than Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, who on Wednesday spoke to an Australian audience as part of an event hosted by the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales.
Dr Fauci contrasted the "inconsistent response" of the United States with that of Australia's tough border and lockdown policy, which has kept the virus largely at bay here.
"At least looking at it from a distance, and then discussing with my Australian friends and colleagues, you had the capability and the uniformity of your citizens that when you shut down, you really shut down very effectively," he said.
"I'm sure not everybody in Australia was excited about having to shut things down.
"But you did it in a way which was really quite uniform, but importantly, effective.
What Australia can learn from the US vaccine rollout
In recent months though, the tables have started to turn.
The US has been vaccinating millions of people a day, while Australia — although virtually virus-free — has had a sluggish start to its vaccine rollout.
So what's changed? The president, for starters.
Dr Fauci says hitting the vaccine rollout from as many directions as possible at a grassroots level has been key.
"What [Joe Biden] has done, for example, is open up community vaccine centres, get vaccines to the pharmacies, develop mobile units to go out to get the people who are in poorly accessible areas," Dr Fauci said.
Mr Biden also got as many people administering the vaccine out into the field as he possibly could.
"Those are retired physicians, military personnel, nurses, medical students," Dr Fauci said.
And while the US still has a long way to go to protect its citizens, and Australia's vaccine rollout is in its early days, Dr Fauci acknowledged that wealthy nations also have a role to play in ensuring vaccines roll out globally — to protect both rich and poor.
"As long as there's the dynamic of virus replication somewhere, there will always be the threat of the emergence of variants, which could then come back," he said.
"And even though most of the rest of the world is vaccinated, it can threaten the world that has felt that they've controlled the virus, when they're still quite vulnerable."
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