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CoVE Package: COVID-19 Vaccine Education
The importance of the COVID-19 vaccine for individual and societal health

10. Combining protective measures to protect our communities

There is no single way to protect ourselves and our communities from COVID-19.

We can get the best protection by combining the protective measures we have available and ensuring people have appropriate financial and social support.

Vaccination is an important protective measure. Some measures (such as physical distancing, quarantine, face masks) are particularly important in times of high spread.

Protection Swiss Cheese Model Illustration of how combining distancing ventilation masks hygiene and vaccination can protect our communities

"The Swiss Cheese Respiratory Virus Pandemic Defence Version 4.3" by Ian M. Mackay is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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The Swiss Cheese Respiratory Virus Pandemic Defence

Recognising that no single intervention is perfect at preventing the spread.

Personal Responsibilities

  • Masks
  • Stay at home if sick
  • Physical distancing
  • Ventilation
  • Hand hygiene, cough etiquette
  • Physical distance, outdoors
  • If crowded / High CO2, limit time

Shared & Personal Responsibilities

  • Empathetic, factual, culturally responsible communication
  • Fast and sensitive testing and tracing. Acting on results
  • Leadership: Transparency & financial support
  • Quarantine & isolation
  • Vaccines.
  • Border controls & stay-at-home orders
  • Ventilation, humidity air filtration

Each intervention (slice) has imperfections (holes) which change in size, number and position depending on how the intervention is rolled out.

Multiple layers improve success.

Ian M Mackray, VIROLOGYDOWNUNDER.COM

With thanks to Jody Lanard, Katherine Arden & The Uni of QLD

Based on the Swiss cheese model of accident causation, by James T Reason 1990 Version 4.3

Update 04 Sep 2021

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