US army General George S. Patton understood logistics.

Patton once told his junior officers that if they did not understand the critical importance of supply lines, they would be “totally useless’’ as leaders.

Scott Morrison should take note.

The Prime Minister’s performance in obtaining Covid vaccine supplies for Australians has been woeful.

Australians know mass vaccination is a prerequisite to a return to normal life.

But a return to normal seems a long way off.

As early as March last year, while drug companies were still developing vaccines, smart national leaders moved quickly to sign contracts, putting their nations at the front of the queue for supplies.

Countries such as the US and Canada hedged their bets by sealing deals with as many as six different drug companies so they would have a fallback in the event one or more vaccines proved ineffective.

It wasn’t until July that drug company Pfizer contacted the Australian government to offer a meeting about its vaccine.

But by the time Morrison announced the deal with Pfizer on November 4, the company had already committed to provide more than a billion doses to 34 other nations.

It is extraordinary that despite this, Morrison assured Australians we were “at the front of the queue’’.

He told us four million Australians would be vaccinated by the end of March. But he missed that target by 3.4 million.

He promised six million people would be fully vaccinated by May 10. That didn’t happen either.

As of today only about 10 per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated.

More than half of Britons have had both jabs.

The US is approaching 50 per cent.

Back in Australia, AstraZeneca, has been the subject of changing medical advice.

The PM made a grave error in putting all his eggs in one basket. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Twelve million people in NSW and Victoria are in lockdown.

Borders are closed.

Businesses are shut.

Workers are losing their jobs.

And the virus has re-entered the aged-care system.

In 2020, the good work of the Australian people prevented the same level of Covid deaths that were seen overseas.

But in failing to deliver vaccines, Morrison has squandered all that good work.

His other big failure has been quarantine.

There have been 26 leaks of the virus from hotels. For a year, experts have been calling for new quarantine centres similar to the Howard Springs workers’ camp near Darwin.

Morrison had two jobs in 2021 – rolling out the vaccine program and fixing the broken quarantine system.

He has bungled both.

This opinion piece was first published in the Herald Sun on Friday, 16 July 2021.