Currently, cybersecurity plays an essential role in computing and information technology due to its direct effect on organizations’ critical assets and information. Cybersecurity is applied using integrity, availability, and confidentiality to protect organizational assets and information from various malicious attacks and vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated different cybersecurity issues and challenges for businesses as employees have become accustomed to working from home. Firms are speeding up their digital transformation, making cybersecurity the current main concern. For software and hardware systems protection, organizations tend to spend an excessive amount of money procuring intrusion detection systems, antivirus software, antispyware software, and encryption mechanisms. However, these solutions are not enough, and organizations continue to suffer security risks due to the escalating list of security vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a thriving need to provide a cybersecurity awareness and training framework for remote working employees. The main objective of this research is to propose a CAT framework for cybersecurity awareness and training that will help organizations to evaluate and measure their employees’ capability in the cybersecurity domain. The proposed CAT framework will assist different organizations in effectively and efficiently managing security-related issues and challenges to protect their assets and critical information. The developed CAT framework consists of three key levels and twenty-five core practices. Case studies are conducted to evaluate the usefulness of the CAT framework in cybersecurity-based organizational settings in a real-world environment. The case studies’ results showed that the proposed CAT framework can identify employees’ capability levels and help train them to effectively overcome the cybersecurity issues and challenges faced by the organizations. Cybersecurity performs an important role nowadays by protecting government data, business, industrial information, intellectual property, and personal information from hackers and cybercriminals. Extensive use of technology is directly proportional to the increase in cybercrime. The main objective of cybersecurity is, therefore, to protect information due to the enormous increase in cyber-attacks and to lessen the possibility of global and catastrophic consequences . ResearcThe COVID-19 pandemic has generated different challenges for businesses as employees have become accustomed to working from home. Firms are speeding up their digital transformation, making cybersecurity the current main concern . The repSibillon et al.  proposedThe main objective of this research is to develop a cybersecurity awareness and training framework to support organizations in enriching and training their employees to secure the information and overall system of the organization. We studied the existing empirical literature on different published cybersecurity frameworks and models with the inclusion of the structural concept of the well-known NIST “Building an information technology security awareness and training program” . We deveThis research study is organized as follows: In recent times, academia and industry have been paying more attention to cybersecurity. ISO 9126 , softwarSimilarly, numerous research papers have been proposed on the vulnerability classifications and taxonomies ,14,15,16Specifically, Ghazvini and Shukur  proposedHong et al.  measuredResearch has been conducted on information security maturity and IT security maturity that focuses on the ability of the organizations to fulfill their security objectives ,13,14,15The existing frameworks/models, as shown in This research study focuses on solving the challenges related to cybersecurity awareness and training. We propose a CAT framework for cybersecurity awareness and training that will help organizations to evaluate and measure their employees’ capability in cybersecurity. The proposed CAT framework will also assist different organizations to properly manage security-related issues and challenges in an effective and efficient manner to protect their assets and critical information.Research methodology is divided into the following five phases: literature review and empirical studies, developing CAT framework levels and practices, developing CAT framework, case studies, and, finally, post-case-study evaluation and feedback, as shown in A comprehensive literature review was conducted in relevance to cybersecurity training and awareness. Empirical studies were also conducted to explore established frameworks/models in the cybersecurity domain. Comparison criteria such as name, reference, year, domain, and validation approaches were built to compare the identified cybersecurity awareness and training frameworks/models in different domains, such as healthcare, business, and education, as shown in We studied all the relevant empirical literature studies and already existing frameworks/models, including NIST  “Building an information technology security awareness and training program” , to deveAn academic assessment was completed for building the proposed CAT framework related to cybersecurity training and awareness for online-working-based employees. This assessment facilitates us to build and verify the CAT framework and identify the weaknesses within it before applying the framework to the cybersecurity real-world environment for evaluation. After deep study and reviews, the proposed CAT framework was built free of flaws and errors and was ready for testing and evaluation in a real-world environment.This phase includes sending the proposed developed CAT framework to the cybersecurity organizations for evaluation and measurement. It includes the extensive demonstration of the proposed CAT framework to determine whether it is suitable for application in a real-world environment, which will also lead towards further refinement of the proposed solution. The case study method was used to evaluate the CAT framework because it is a powerful evaluation tool that can provide useful real-world information . A case Next, a statistical analysis was performed to measure the proposed CAT framework and the conducted case studies. Statistical analysis is the most crucial phase because it assists with management of descriptive information; that is, numbers are assigned for every variable and their percentages that need to be described in the form of frequency graphs or tables. Frequencies are helpful in cases of comparison and contrasting among or across a group of variables by considering the four scales of data analysis, including nominal, ordinal interval, and ratio. In this research, the median is used for evaluation of our proposed CAT framework due to its ordinal scale nature.Post-case-study evaluations were completed to improve and enhance the developed CAT framework from the perspective of the real industrial environment. The framework was evaluated based on three main aspects: ease of use, CAT framework structure, and user satisfaction in order to improve it and make it more feasible for the organizations who want to use it.The CAT framework is primarily founded on the structural concept of the well-known NIST “Building an information technology security awareness and training program” . We deveThe authors repeatedly reviewed the levels with practices and placed them in their proper position in each level of the CAT framework. Before the real-world environment case studies evaluation, a review of the CAT framework was performed many times by the researchers in an iterative manner. The complete flow of the development process of the CAT framework is shown in The structure of the CAT framework was implemented mainly from NIST  “Building an information technology security awareness and training program”. NIST provides guidance on creating an efficient IT security program and maintaining the requirements stipulated in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)  and the We developed the structure of the proposed CAT framework into three main modules, namely: (1) artificial intelligence (AI), (2) adaptive-knowledge-based measurement, and (3) capability levels. This module is further divided into three main components: machine learning (ML), natural language processing, and expert systems. When applying ML and AI techniques, we will consider and assess security for the proposed framework to avoid any compromise or generation of security risks. According to AWS security guidelines for ML, the basic security measures are data poisoning, membership inference, and model inversion . ImplemeMachine and deep learning algorithms are applied for modeling and developing students’ knowledge . DiffereNatural language processing is an artificial intelligence technique that is closely used for automated scoring self-adaptive testing systems . The preWithin the domain of artificial intelligence, an expert system looks like a computer system mimicking the decision-making ability of a human expert. It is designed to resolve complicated problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, characterized primarily as if–then rules. Expert systems are mainly used for educational decision-making . SimilarThis module has a capability metric for the proceeding three levels . The threshold values specified for each level are beginner: 0–50%; medium: 51–80%; and advanced: 81–100%. This module includes cybersecurity knowledge and IQ-level questions written and quantified by the organization according to their domain and nature of system security for their online workforces.Capability levels are further divided into the following:This level consists of basic awareness regarding the organization’s cybersecurity. Following are the required key components of this level:Organization business: This is the working domain of an organization, such as healthcare, finance, transportation, information technology, etc. The organization needs to define its domain and business processes explicitly for its workforces.Organization policies and strategies: Achievement of an organization is directly associated with how the employees and overall administration perceive the objectives to be realized, and the methods were developed to attain their goals. A strategy is an act that the managers and directors undertake to achieve their organizational goals. A policy is a set of rules and guidelines prepared by the organization for reasonable decision-making. Organizations must introduce their strategies and policies clearly to the employees and other relevant people in the organization to achieve the desired goals and marketing targets.Cybersecurity basics: This component includes basic knowledge of cybersecurity. The organization must make their employees and administration aware of the basic cybersecurity knowledge. Cybersecurity is established on three important concepts called “The CIA Triad”, which signifies the confidentiality, integrity, and availability that should be defined and conveyed to their employees. Other necessary terms need to be defined, such as: “asset management and identification, risk management, access management, threat management, security controls, disaster recovery and business continuity, incident management, security education, training, and awareness”.International cybersecurity standard: Cybersecurity standards are collected works of the best practices established by the domain experts to defend organizations from cyber-attacks and threats. The proposed standards and frameworks are usually appropriate for all organizations, irrespective of their size and scope. The organization needs their employees and administration to be aware of the cybersecurity international standards to protect the organization’s assets from cyber-attacks and threats. The major and most well-known international cybersecurity standards include but are not limited to the following: DFARS  , FederalSocial engineering: Social engineering (SE) is a method frequently used by hackers and cybercriminals to trick people into giving them access to a system by breaking the security practices and standards. The major social engineering cyber-attacks are accomplished through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube ,65,66,67Basic cyber-attacks and threats: A cyber-attack is a malicious act that seeks to damage data, steal data, or disrupt digital life in general. Organizations are required to train their employees and administration regarding the most common cyber-attacks and threats and to teach them how to manage and mitigate these kinds of cyber-attacks and threats. For example, cyber-attacks and threats consist of “computer viruses, data breaches, malware, spyware, phishing attacks, ransomware, zero-day exploits, advanced persistent threats, trojans, wiper attacks, intellectual property theft, theft of money, data manipulation, data destruction, man-in-the-middle attack, drive-by downloads, malvertising, rogue software, unpatched software, data center disrupted by a natural disaster, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and other attack vectors”.The medium level includes the following training phases and training platforms.Training phases: The training phases are conducted to train and bring awareness of cybersecurity challenges, attacks, and threats to the organization’s employees. These phases are organized in a systematic structure that consists of the training requirement, design, development, implementation, and post-implementation.Requirement: Cybersecurity awareness and training requires continuing education that provides employees significant information and an examination of their cybersecurity training and awareness by including all facets of data security and regulatory compliance. Humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity ,68, and Design: This phase must be designed in a manner that keeps the organization’s mission and goals in mind. This phase is significant and supports the business’s needs and is related to the organization’s culture and IT infrastructure. The training design phase defined the overall training model from start to end by keeping all the essential components in mind, such as training all stockholders, seekers, and givers; timeframe; the relevant topics on cybersecurity for training; and presenting clear guidelines.Development: This is the development and realistic structure of all the components mentioned in the requirement and design phase of the training and awareness process. Moreover, in this step, the components are refined by adding or removing certain components to achieve quality and training satisfaction.Implementation: This is the actual implementation of the training and awareness programs for the specified online-working-based workforces, keeping in mind the supportive human and non-human resources, understandability level, and appropriate way of delivering the training to the trainee.Post-implementation: This phase is intended to ensure that the trainees advance from beginner by conducting regular assessments, regular interactions, ensure professional growth, knowledge testing, compile their results, and support improvement. This ensures the trainee achieved the necessary competent knowledge according to their role in the organization.E-postersVideosWebinarsSeminarsWorkshopsEmailNewslettersWeb-basedOnline lectures.Training medium: This comprises the medium for conveying the training. The use of training medium depends on the organization requirements, domain, and structure. Following are the training mediums:The advanced level includes the practical assessment and normally comes after completing the previous levels. The advanced level includes the following practical and assessment strategies.Gamification: Researchers and practitioners [itioners ,70,71,72itioners , zero thitioners , keep tritioners , and gamitioners ,77.Simulation/Emulation: A simulation/emulation is an animated model that mimics the operation and processes of the proposed cybersecurity system, such as cybersecurity attacks, threats, incidence response, management, and mitigation. Simulations are good for trainees because the learners can damage the actual resources at their initial level of training without presenting the actual environment. Simulation training is possible to conduct online and is less expensive than in-person training. Researchers and practitioners have already worked to provide cybersecurity training simulators [mulators ,79,80,81mulators  mentioneAssessment: The assessment ensures the trainee’s professional growth, knowledge testing, compiles their results, and supports improvement. The assessment checks that the trainee achieved the necessary knowledge according to their roles in the organization.Certificates/awards: Certificates or awards are given to the employee after successful completion of the cybersecurity training and awareness program.BeginnerThe CAT framework consists of three capability levels, which were adopted mainly from the NIST  “Building an information technology security awareness and training program” and the relevant empirical studies. Following are the capability levels scoring criteria:This capability level only includes a basic awareness of cybersecurity. The qualitative point score for this capability level is between 0% and 50%.MediumThis capability level includes the cybersecurity program training. The qualitative point score for this capability level is greater than 50% and less than or equal to 80%.AdvancedThis capability level includes the comprehensive reviews and the practical and final assessment of the cybersecurity awareness and training program. The qualitative point score for this capability level is greater than 80% and less than or equal to 100%.The capability levels’ percentage range values can be modified by the organization according to their priorities without affecting the capability levels and the overall measurement of the proposed framework.The CAT framework adopted the range values from the IBM (RUP) process area, and the exclusion of percentages in the IBM process area was replaced by corresponding number values beginning at 1, equal to the beginner capability level, 2 for medium, and, finally, 3 for advanced. Then, multiply the percentage values with the highest-level scale in our circumstance, which is 3, to achieve the equivalent value for each capability level. For example, 0.50 × 3 is equal to 1.5, 0.80 × 3 is equal to 2.4, and, finally, 0.100 × 3 is equal to 3. The median range has been calculated and adopted from the study conducted by Grundmann . We usedTwo case studies were conducted to evaluate the CAT framework in a real-world environment within a reputed cybersecurity international organization. Cybersecurity experts and engineers along with their teams from the selected organizations agreed to contribute to the case studies. They showed a desire to measure the capability of the practices that are defined in the proposed CAT framework in their organizations. Our research team provided all the applicable complete documentation and guidelines for efficiently conducting the case studies to avoid any biases and mistakes. Our research team provided participants with an Excel spreadsheet containing the levels and practices that were developed in the proposed CAT framework.The conducted case studies of two selected organizations are mentioned in If the organization did not apply the practice of the CAT framework.If the organization partially applied the practice of the CAT framework.If the organization completely performed applied the practice of the CAT framework.We requested that the participants assess every practice of the CAT framework for the mentioned capability levels, assigning point values per the following:Case study  is a resAccording to the demographics of organization I, it is an international private cybersecurity organization located in Pakistan, and over 60 employees are working in this organization. It delivers cybersecurity solutions, penetration testing, and consultations. The working domain in which this organization provides its services is safety-critical systems, business systems, communications, and real-time systems. The case study was conducted at the main branch of this organization. The responses for the case study were submitted by the senior cybersecurity team lead, who has more than 8 years of experience. The following levels of results were achieved from organization I.BeginnerThe median of this level of evaluation is 2, which is the awareness level of the CAT framework. This cybersecurity organization has not reached the highest capability level. If this organization wants to jump into the highest level of capability in this phase, then they must follow and implement the other practices in the beginner and medium levels. Furthermore, the organization must work on all practices except organizational policies and strategies and cybersecurity basic knowledge, which is already at the advanced capability level.MediumThe median of this evaluation level is 2, which is the training capability level of the CAT framework. Similarly, this cybersecurity organization has not reached the highest capability level. If this organization wants to grow to the highest level of capability in cybersecurity awareness and training, then they must follow and implement the other practices that are marked as the beginner and medium levels in the case study of the proposed CAT framework. This level needs more effort with the practices in the beginner and medium levels, especially the training phases practices. Efforts are needed in all practices except email and web-based training platforms because they have achieved advanced capability level in those practices.AdvancedThe median of this evaluation level is 2, which is the practical and assessment capability level of the CAT framework, as in the other levels. If this organization wants to grow towards the highest level of capability, then it must follow and implement the other practices that are marked with beginner and medium capability levels. The practical and assessment are almost in the beginner and medium capability levels. They only had two practices at the highest capability level, which shows a clear indication and needs more work to achieve the advanced capability level.The overall outcomes of the case study evaluation of organization I are quite near the advanced level of the CAT framework. They have achieved the medium capability level. Then again, the organization still needs to implement more practices of the overall three levels of the CAT framework because security is the most significant factor of any organization in protecting their critical assets and information. Some practices and certain levels still need to be advanced by reaching the advanced level of the CAT framework.Organization II is an international private cybersecurity organization. Its offices are located in the three major cities of Pakistan. It is an independent organization providing solutions and training in the cybersecurity domain. The case study was conducted at the main branch. More than 100 employees work in this organization, and 400-plus clients are registered worldwide. Similarly, they have trained over 1500 information security professionals. They deliver both national and multi-national services. They work in the security management, maturity assessment, security consultancy, security awareness, and assessment domains. The responses to the case study were provided by the senior information security officer, who has more than 10 years of experience. This organization case study gives us more confidence in the proposed CAT framework because it provides awareness and training programs to cybersecurity professionals.BeginnerThe median of this evaluation level is 2, which is the awareness capability level of the CAT framework. This software organization has not reached the highest capability level. In this level, only one practice achieved the beginner capability level, which is social engineering, and one practice attained the advanced level, which is cybersecurity basics. All the other practices were achieved at the medium capability.MediumThe median of this evaluation level is also 2, which is the training capability level of the proposed CAT framework. The training development and email and web-based training platforms had a quite good evaluation and almost reached the highest advanced capability level. However, five practices had the lowest beginner capability level, specifically online lecture training platform and requirement, design, and post-implementation of training. The other remaining practices are at the medium capability level, so more effort is required to achieve the advanced capability levels.AdvancedAs with the other two levels, the median of this evaluation level is also 2, which is the medium capability level of the CAT framework. Two practices, simulation and emulation, fell at the beginner level, and one practice, known as assessment, received the medium level. However, this organization is more focused on gamification and certification/wards. If this organization wants to obtain the highest level of capability in this level, then they must follow and implement the other practices that are marked with beginner and medium capability levels.The overall outcomes of the case study evaluation for organization II are relatively near the advanced level of the proposed CAT framework. However, the organization still needs to implement more practices of the overall three levels of the CAT framework. This organization is quite good compared to organization I because it is conducting and providing more focus to training and certification of cybersecurity professionals.After the completion of the case studies from both organizations, the contributors were invited to complete a post-case-study questionnaire to offer their opinion about the CAT framework structure, user satisfaction, and ease of use. The responses about the CAT framework were carefully assessed and evaluated for the goal of improvement. The tables and success criteria for each table were adopted from the published study by Mufti et al. .In the first phase, we requested that the organizations evaluate the ease of use of the CAT framework, and both organizations I and II agreed and strongly agreed that the CAT framework is easy to comprehend and use. The contributors of the questionnaire have grasped the background and had important knowledge regarding cybersecurity, practices, and processes. In the second phase, we asked the participants about the user satisfaction of the CAT framework. The user satisfaction was measured and evaluated based on the CAT framework outcomes. Both organization I and organization II agreed and strongly agreed about the satisfaction of the CAT framework, and they suggested the CAT framework to other organizations as well. In the third phase, we asked the participants about the structure of the CAT framework. Both organizations evaluated and measured the structure of the CAT framework. They provided us very positive reactions regarding the simplicity of the structure and CAT framework organization. Moreover, they most strongly agreed on the proposed levels and practices, and especially the placement position of the practices in each level of the CAT framework. In the final phase, we requested that the questionnaire contributors provide successful and considerable suggestions to improve the proposed CAT framework. However, we did not receive any potential comments or suggestions from either organization I or II, which clearly revealed that the proposed CAT framework could assess the employees’ awareness and training on the perspective of cybersecurity. The post-case-study comments from both organizations I and II are shown in The case study request was sent to many organizations, but most of them were reluctant to complete the case study and provide us their responses. The cause may be hesitation regarding the organization’s reputation and privacy. However, we explicitly stated in the proposed case study instructions that the information would be held in the strictest confidence. For the proposed CAT framework generalization, we are seeking a few more reputed cybersecurity-relevant organizations around the globe to contribute to the proposed case studies. The assessment results of the CAT framework were obtained from two international and reputed cybersecurity organizations.Another potential limitation is related to the literature review process regarding that some research papers may have been overlooked. However, we believe that our results cover most of the appropriate published research studies. Further, it is probable that subjective decisions had an impact regarding collection of major research studies in the information mining stages because some of the major research studies did not utilize organized abstracts, concise descriptions in the discussion section, and clear contributions of their research work. However, to lessen this constraint, the authors endeavored to carry out the literature review process as well as possible in order to obtain rich information.Cybersecurity is currently an emergent research area due to a variety of cyber-attacks that precede massive financial loss to organizations’ reputations. Researchers and practitioners now consider cybersecurity critical due to different cyber threats and attacks on various organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations are attempting to protect essential assets and information from different kinds of hackers and threat actors. The main objective of this research was to develop a CAT framework to assist different domain organizations in protecting their key assets and information from those threats. Organizations need to implement the proposed CAT framework to provide awareness to and train their employees regarding the recent social-engineering-based cyber-attacks and threats. The proposed CAT framework will help organizations to identify their cybersecurity-relevant weaknesses in their systems and measure their employees’ capability toward cyber threats, attacks, and incidence management. Moreover, implementing the categorized practices of each level of the CAT framework will improve the organization’s security infrastructure. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to point out the potential practices of the proposed framework from the perspectives of experienced researchers in the domain of cybersecurity.The structure of the proposed CAT framework includes three main levels: beginner (awareness), medium (training), and advanced . Similarly, we identified a total of 25 most important practices for achieving the developed levels. A case study was established and conducted for evaluation of the proposed CAT framework within cybersecurity organizations for validation and further improvement purposes. Case studies were implemented in two organizations only at the initial stage, and the results were achieved. The obtained results gave us more confidence in our proposed CAT framework because both organizations gained a medium level. However, they still need to implement more practices from the overall three levels of the CAT framework because security is the most crucial factor in protecting their organizational core assets and information.In future work, we will compare our proposed CAT framework with other cybersecurity training and awareness frameworks that are already in the operational stage to obtain a more transparent view of the practical implementation by the organizations. Moreover, we will propose an automated software tool in combination with AI for the proposed CAT framework. The software tool will support organizations in easy implementation and measurement of their employees’ cybersecurity awareness and training capability in real time.


Decent work, defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1999 in relation to promoting productive and freely chosen employment, fair income, security in the workplace, guaranteeing rights at work, granting social protection, freedom of organization and creating social dialogue, is a basic condition for the health and wellbeing of workers and their families , decent However, informal employment – that is work without a contract, legal protection or social security – is the most common employment arrangement in the world. According to the ILO, its share of total employment (SDG indicator 8.3.1) was 61% (2 billion workers) by 2016. While globally the proportion of informal workers is larger among men (63% versus 58% for women), there are more countries (55%) where the share of women in informal employment exceeds that of men  and poor working conditions , as well as poor living conditions and limited access to health services. However, much research is still needed to better understand the health consequences of informal employment and its mechanisms, acknowledging that informal work is a heterogeneous phenomenon that makes both research and policy-making especially challenging.In high-income countries, on the other hand, where informal employment is generally <20% , its effConversely, research on the health impact of precarious employment on formally employed workers have increased in the last two decades . In factBriefly, we could summarize that informal employment is characterized by the lack of a contract and social security coverage and that precarious employment is characterized by a weak employment relation with different extents of employment insecurity, low wages, limited workplace rights and social protection among formally employed workers. A shared feature of workers in poor employment conditions is that they generally perform less qualified jobs, face more risks at work and lack the power to bargain over their working and employment conditions to improve them . InformaTo manage this social interaction, we propose a unified conceptual framework of working and employment conditions. For public policy decision-makers and professional practitioners, the former are the classical object of the occupational health and safety issue, and the latter are the object of the human resources issue. Integrating both dimensions in an axis of coordinates, as is shown in This framework may contribute to understanding that employment and working conditions are strongly interrelated and that both require attention both from research and policy making. The ILO emphasizes that promoting decent work for all requires realizing fundamental rights at work, creating more and better employment and income opportunities, extending social protection, and promoting social dialogue. We add that this is not only a necessary step towards decent employment but an indispensable one to grant all workers adequate working conditions and thus achieve the goal of decent work in an integral manner.th and 19th centuries. One which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic (We are in the middle of a great transformation probably comparable to the Industrial Revolution in the 18pandemic . An epoqpandemic . Think opandemic . New for


Ixodes gained their hosts using network constructs. We propose two alternative hypotheses, namely, an ecological background  and a phylogenetic one, in which both partners co-evolved, adapting to existing environmental conditions after the association took place.This study aims to capture how ticks of the genus We used network constructs linking all the known pairs of associations between each species and stage of ticks with families and orders of hosts. Faith’s phylogenetic diversity was used to evaluate the phylogenetic distance of the hosts of each species and changes occurring in the ontogenetic switch between consecutive stages of each species (or the extent of the changes in phylogenetic diversity of hosts for consecutive stages of the same species).Ixodes ticks and hosts, supporting the influence of the ecological adaptation and coexistence, demonstrating a lack of strict tick-host coevolution in most cases, except for a few species. Keystone hosts do not exist in the relationships between Ixodes and vertebrates because of the high redundancy of the networks, further supporting an ecological relationship between both types of partners. The ontogenetic switch of hosts is high for species with enough data, which is another potential clue supporting the ecological hypothesis. Other results suggest that the networks displaying tick-host associations are different according to the biogeographical realms. Data for the Afrotropical region reveal a lack of extensive surveys, while results for the Australasian region are suggestive of a mass extinction of vertebrates. The Palearctic network is well developed, with many links demonstrating a highly modular set of relationships.We report highly clustered associations among Ixodes species restricted to one or a few hosts, the results point to an ecological adaptation. Even results on species linked to groups of ticks (such as Ixodes uriae and the pelagic birds or the bat-tick species) are suggestive of a previous action of environmental forces.With the obvious exceptions of The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-022-05641-9. The origin and evolution of ticks (Ixodoidea) is a topic that is still far from solved . AdvanceIxodes and Amblyomma, representatives of Prostriata and Metastriata, respectively, were already differentiated at least by the Cretaceous period [Bothriocotron do not have a basal position and that non-Australian Ixodes are basal to Australian Ixodes [Ixodes lineage originated outside Australia. However, Australian and non-Australian Ixodes result as sister groups in these phylogenies [The evolutionary origin of ticks is still debated, mainly because of the limited fossil record. The fossil evidence and molecular clock analyses suggest that the present-day genera s period , 9. An os period , dating s period , 11. Datn Ixodes , 13, suglogenies . As statlogenies , “this mA deeper understanding of how ticks “gained” their hosts would have both ecological and epidemiological implications, since some vertebrates act as competent reservoirs of prominent pathogens, affecting human and animal health. It seems that ticks gained their hosts, from their primitive conditions of nonpredatory, nonparasitic scavengers, using the “available” therapsids at the time. While phylogenetically connected, these primitive hosts were far from the current tick-host associations, which are based on a scheme formed by birds and mammals of several orders, and/or reptiles/snakes, probably originated in the Cenozoic after the extinction of dinosaurs except Aves. One exception to this common background of hosts are the marsupials, believed to have evolved in the current North America, approximately 90 MYA, expanding into South America and the Pacific rim of Asia. Marsupials are unknown in the fossil record of Asia and Africa. It is accepted that modern marsupials arose in the late Cretaceous ; it has On the other hand, specific environmental conditions  are essential for ticks, because they expend their off-host cycle  questing for a host or molting in the vegetation; this niche is shaped by temperature, humidity, and other variables that may affect tick survival and development. Ticks, like any other organism, track their abiotic niche  but the Ixodes, as a proof-of-concept for exploring tick-hosts relationships. The genus includes 277 species currently accepted as valid and is distributed worldwide . Using a compilation of the known host range of Ixodes spp., we wanted to analyze these relationships and explore clues to demonstrate how this large tick genus gained its hosts. We hypothesized that the associations between ticks and hosts are highly clustered and redundant. The first term means that these associations form independent clusters. In this context, “redundancy” means the existence of several or many phylogenetically unrelated hosts supporting the same tick species. The latter concept has been slightly explored before [Ixodes and vertebrates because of the high redundancy of the networks (but in a few species). The latter would support an environmental dependence. We were also interested in the ontogenetic switch of hosts as another potential clue supporting either hypothesis. Ixodes spp. have three stages feeding on different hosts. There are species of Ixodes that use groups of hosts that are widely separated in the phylogenetic tree, at each stage of feeding; other species are restricted to one or a few species of vertebrates in the three stages. The extent of an ontogenetic switch in the genus would support an environmentally driven adaptation of these ticks to hosts.We aimed to apply methods gathered from ecological studies, applied to the ticks of the genus d before  and is bIxodes spp. and vertebrates have been compiled by AAG and SN and almost completely published [All the data used in this study on the associations of ublished . AdditioIxodes has been reported, queried OTL and obtained a non-ultrametric tree of these families. We obtained the length of each branch of the tree for further calculations using commands in R. The complete network of tick-host associations and the phylogenetic tree in Nexus format are provided as Additional file Several indexes calculated in this study rely on a phylogenetic tree of the vertebrates, which we chose to be based at the family level. We used a synthetic tree obtained from the Open Tree of Life (OTL), accessing its application programming interface using the library “rOTL”  for the Ixodes spp. were represented in GenBank, preventing this approach, in favor of other strategies.The explicit comparison between the phylogenetic trees of both ticks and hosts could provide interesting data about coevolution events and even with details about the date these events could occur. However, it would be necessary to have a phylogenetic tree including every species of tick, allowing plausible comparisons between the two trees (vertebrates and ticks). We aimed to prepare that tree for ticks based on genetic sequences available in GenBank. We however realized that some sequences are inadequately labeled, or they belong to misidentified ticks, as noticed after alignment. Furthermore, the same genes have not been systematically used in previous research about this tick genus; additionally, some tick species are over-represented while sequences for others are not available. We assessed that approximately 20% of Ixodes is the calculation of the phylogenetic diversity (PD) of the hosts reported for each species of tick, using Faith’s index of phylogenetic diversity [One of the main indices in the evaluation of the host associations in the genus iversity . The PD Order and Size measure the number of nodes and number of links, respectively. Noninteracting organisms have no links between them. Interacting organisms are always pairs of nodes (i.e. the tick species “a” has been recorded on the vertebrate “b”). We chose to express the data as a bipartite network whose nodes are divided into two sets X (ticks) and Y (hosts), and only connections between two nodes in different sets are allowed . The number of times each tick has been cited in a family of vertebrates is the weight of the link between the nodes of tick and vertebrate. We also used orders of vertebrates to summarize the data, mainly aiming to improve the visualization of charts.Ecological networks of any kind, such as food webs or plants plus pollinators, may be highly structured ; such stOther than analyzing the complete network formed by every species of ticks we used the known distribution of each tick according to biogeographical realms  to prepare “partial” networks involving only records from these regions. Some ticks share two or more realms and have been included in both. A few species of ticks have a worldwide range and were included only in the complete network. The aim for different networks is to follow a coherent overview of tick-vertebrate relationships along biogeographical regions.http://www.gephi.org, last accessed February 2022). We used several indices for characterizing each network, namely the weighted degree, betweenness centrality and modularity. In weighted networks the weighted degree is calculated as the sum of weights assigned to the node's direct connections and represents the node strength, adjusted by the weight of each edge. It is based on the weights of links and not only on the number of links. Centrality measures, such as betweenness centrality, can be used to detect which hosts play a key role in a network. The algorithm for betweenness centrality calculates the shortest paths between all pairs of nodes in a graph, describing the importance of a node as “connector.” For example, if many species use Rodentia as hosts, then Rodentia will have a high betweenness, and its removal most probably promotes a leaking of the network in separated modules. Modularity is a measure of clustering in subsets of interacting nodes. It detects groups of nodes that interact statistically more frequently among them than with the rest of nodes. Modularity was calculated using the Louvaine algorithm, as included in Gephi 0.92. A parasite-host network with high modularity is not synonymous with high fragility of the interactions, but of tight relationships among nodes, well separated from the relationships of other ticks and hosts. Other than these indexes, both order and size indicate the number of interacting organisms and the resulting links among them, respectively.We used Gephi 0.92 for network calculations (links per species (the sum of links divided by the number of species of ticks), number of compartments (subsets of the network that are not connected to another compartment) and nestedness, a measure of structure in an ecological system, usually applied to interactions among species such as hosts-parasites. A network is said to be nested when the clusters that have a few items in them are a subset of the items of elements with more items. We calculated the Nestedness Overlap and Decreasing Fill (NODF) as the index for the nestedness of the matrix, in which high values indicate nestedness [Fisher’s alpha [Functional complementarity and partner diversity are two indices that measure how the species of ticks “share” or not similar groups of hosts. The former is measured as the amount of functional space shared by the community, and the second is the weighted mean Shannon diversity of the number of interactions of the species of ticks. Last, the extinction slope measures the slope of the effects of hosts’ removal into the “extinction” sequence of the tick species; the method is also a measure of robustness of the system to the losses of hosts. The method is based on the fact that if a given fraction of hosts is eliminated, several species of ticks that depend on these interactions could become “extinct” [We calculated other indices available in the package “bipartite”  for R. Tstedness . The int’s alpha , 30. Funextinct” .Ixodes is a tick genus whose three stages feed on three different hosts. They molt between consecutive stages, commonly on the ground, but also in nests or shelters of the hosts. For example, it is relatively common that the immature stages of a tick feed on small animals; adult ticks of some species need a copious blood meal and are commonly reported on large animals. However, other species may use small animals for feeding even as adults. We aimed to examine how the different stages of Ixodes switch the hosts, in what is called the “ontogenetic shift.” To capture a hypothetical evolutionary linkage of ticks to hosts, it is necessary to know how every stage is restricted to given lineage(s) of hosts. Such restriction to hosts among stages could reveal a phylogenetic clustering to a group of vertebrates and could be detected by a low variability of phylogenetic distance among hosts of each stage. If tick stages “switch” among hosts, then a lack of evolutionary linkage between ticks and vertebrates should be suspected, which should be proportional to a higher phylogenetic diversity among the hosts of each stage.Ixodes in that region. We also calculated the phylogenetic diversity of the hosts of each species of tick together with the probability of co-occurrence of ticks on different groups of vertebrates calculating the observed and expected frequencies of co-occurrence between each pair of species. In the latter, when a species pair is not classified as positive or negative, the species pair can be truly randomly distributed, or they can be unclassifiable because of low statistical power.Calculations were based on Faith’s phylogenetic diversity on the phylogenetic tree of the families of hosts built as explained before, computing the rate of change of PD of the hosts reported for two consecutive stages. A value near zero means that both stages of the tick share similar hosts that are phylogenetically close. A large value between consecutive feeding stages is an indication of switching. This evaluation was performed separately for the tick-vertebrate association in each biogeographical realm, and always for the three consecutive life cycle stages; the Oriental region was not included because the hosts for each stage are known for only six species of Ixodes and their hosts. It includes labels only for the families and orders of vertebrates to improve readability. Additional file Ixodes species can feed on different clusters of hosts . For instance, Cricetidae, Muridae and Sciuridae may be hosts of immature stages of Ixodes spp. associated with Marsupialia in both adults and immature stages. In the same way, the importance of Passeriformes in supporting many Ixodes spp. is overwhelming, and the order is also used by ticks feeding also on Eutheria (mainly Rodentia). The importance of Passeriformes is anecdotical for the Ixodes spp. currently known in the Australasian region.Figure Ixodes auritulus group). The bats of the world form a similarly well separated cluster, together with a few species of Ixodes that seem to be specialists of the group of hosts. As before, the cluster is not separated from the main network because some generalist ticks  have been reported on bats. The Marsupialia, Monotremata and Dasyuromorphia of both Neotropical and Australasian realms resulted in another cluster separated from the mainstream of relationships detected for Ixodes. Interestingly, the Struthioniformes (Apterygidae) are included in the same group. Paucituberculata and Microbiotheria form the smallest cluster of the network.Pelagic birds (e.g. Charadriiformes and Procelariiformes) together with Sphenisciformes form a remarkable cluster separated from the rest because it has tick species that use these hosts at every stage see Fig. . This meIxodes spp. and their hosts has 3.35 links per tick species  is a consequence of the large number of links mainly to Eutheria and Aves, enhancing redundancy with the connections between the two main groups of vertebrates. Such large number of links with these two groups of hosts produces a relatively high index of partner diversity (2.38).The complete network of es Table  but is oIxodes spinicoxalis, Ixodes ceylonensis, Ixodes petauristae, Ixodes himalayensis and Ixodes werneri, in decreasing order of phylogenetic diversity of adults), together with Ixodes laysanensis present in the Pacific rim.We split the results of the complete network into five different networks representing the biogeographical realms of the world . Such high phylogenetic diversity is not paralleled by the number of families of vertebrates (n = 38) recorded as hosts of the species. This network has the highest modularity and lowest nestedness, redundancy, functional complementarity and host diversity. Interestingly, the network shows several clusters separated from the main group of species (i.e. Caprimulgiformes and Microbiotheria). The Paucituberculata are linked to the main body of the network by only one species and stage (larvae of Ixodes jonesae). Similar findings apply for Chiroptera and the adults of I. pararicinus. The largest clusters of the network are those formed by Rodentia and Passeriformes, with the former observing a large share of hosts also with Didelphimorphia . A small number of clusters means a tightly aggregated network (confirmed by the large nestedness) with redundancy of links . This results in a very simple network . Some interesting features of the Palearctic Ixodes are the use of many orders of Aves, together with Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Eulipotyphla and Carnivora and Artiodactyla. The species parasitic on seabirds and on Chiroptera form associations that are clearly separated from the main body of the network. However, these two “subnetworks” remain attached to the main core by several species/stages linked to either Passeriformes or Rodentia , Ixodes ricinus, Ixodes ventalloi and Ixodes eldaricus. Without question, I. ricinus is the species with the largest value of phylogenetic diversity and of host richness for immatures. Both larvae and nymphs were collected from 96 families of vertebrates, resulting in a phylogenetic diversity of > 7.5 (nymphs) and 6.3 (larvae). Closer species in the same realm (such as I. persulcatus) or in others (such as I. scapularis) do not have such high values, even if the survey effort is expected to be similar.Most species of the group Ixodes spp. has peculiar features. As in the Neotropic and Nearctic, the main hosts for all stages are Passeriformes, Rodentia and Carnivora, with several species recorded on a few occasions on other orders. The most significant feature is the high number of species whose adults feed on Passeriformes, with a major nymph-adult switch from Passeriformes to Passeriformes + Rodentia  but because the high plasticity of the ticks results in many groups of hosts used.Ontogenetic switch in the Palearctic tia Fig. . The PalIxodes spp. . Species parasitic on seabirds  have links with Strigiformes and Sphenisciformes. Without the records of Ixodes kerguelenensis or Ixodes kohlsi, the ticks on penguins would be separated from those of seabirds. Similar findings are observed in the cluster of Chiroptera: only the record of Ixodes simplex on Rodentia links the Australasian bats with the core of the network. These are probably casual findings or misidentifications impossible to recheck. Monotremata and Diprotodontia also have a few links relating both groups of vertebrates regarding their Ixodes ticks. However, Dasyuromorphia is linked to Peramelemorphia and, to a lesser degree, to Diprotodontia. In other words, the endemic fauna of Australia exhibits a low degree of sharing species of Ixodes. Except for Diprotodontia, extant endemic orders carry a short tick fauna.The network of Australian p. Figs. , 9 and tIxodes holocyclus, mainly in its adult stage. However, low ontogenetic switch is observed in the Australasian species, which is significant in four species out of 21 . However, looking at the alluvial chart in Fig. An interesting finding is that, even with such a lack of connectivity, the Australasian network is robust to disturbances because the stages of ticks display a low ontogenetic switch and persist on the same groups of hosts. The only tick with a relatively high phylogenetic diversity is Ixodes spp. and their hosts are noteworthy  has also been recorded on Rodentia (as in other regions), linking the module of ticks + bats with the rest of the modules. Whether this constitutes a serendipitous finding or a consistent association remains to be determined.Results regarding the Afrotropical network of hy Figs. , 11. SucIxodes spp. recorded in the Afrotropics have a low phylogenetic diversity. Together with the low nestedness these results reveal a set of species tightly attached to their hosts, with a prominent disparity of families to which species of ticks may be linked. The low ontogenetic diversity recorded for the ticks of the genus in this realm is also significant. It seems that most of these results may be derived from an insufficient survey of the region and reflect only a partial representation of tick/host association.Most Host specificity in ticks results from various factors including ecological, phylogenetic and physiological aspects . Ticks eIxodes spp. is related to Aves (mainly Passeriformes), Rodentia, Carnivora and Artiodactyla. However, probable phylogenetic associations can be observed in several species of the subgenus Eschatocephalus that exploit bats in different biogeographical realms [Pholeoixodes, a set of ticks that are parasites of vertebrates living in shelters [Pholeoixodes is not monophyletic [16S rRNA and cox1 genes [Pholeoixodes were grouped into two different clades that did not have a well-supported common node defining monophyly. It is interesting to note that the subgenus Pholeixodes currently includes ticks recorded on Carnivora or Aves. Therefore, it seems that these associations are ecological and evolved several times within a lineage of Ixodes and vertebrates living in burrows or caves and then separating into different “branches” that spread over different realms.The main background of host associations in l realms , 38. Theshelters . A studyphyletic , supportx1 genes . The speI. ricinus group of species, well known because its implications in human and animal health, and therefore widely surveyed. Other taxa are confirmed to be a complex of species and are distributed worldwide (i.e. I. auritulus) or a complex of species that is present in wide areas of several biogeographical realms (i.e. I. affinis).These results are not free of gaps, since they are based on data obtained from the literature; medically prominent species could be over-represented. An extra bias may come from the collection pressure on some hosts, which may be either abundant or easily trappable. These hosts and their ticks would be over-represented in comparison with protected or rare species. Adhering to previous studies  such obsIxodes spp. to seabirds (e.g. Procellariformes and Sulifomes) is unquestionable and is not geographically restricted; it includes Sphenisciformes, which are unrelated to Procellariforms [Ixodes spp. exploit nesting colonial seabirds in the circumpolar regions of both hemispheres and are considered seabird generalists [Ixodes are endophilic and live in the material of the nest, feeding mainly on chicks in the breeding season [Ixodes uriae and its pelagic bird hosts were the first tick system studied to test for host-associated population genetic structure. It has been hypothesized [I. uriae may consist of local populations adapted to specific hosts; McCoy and her team demonstrated that throughout its global distribution, this tick has indeed formed host-specific races independently evolving in different isolated regions [The tight linkage of some ariforms  but shareralists . These bg season , 44. Ticg season . Ixodes thesized  that I.  regions –50.I. scapularis, the main vector of Lyme disease in the eastern US, on rodent and lizard hosts shifts from north (on rodents) to south (on lizards) [Contemporary work employing population genetic tools to examine host-associated population structure in several ticks supports the idea that host specialization may evolve in some ticks but does not imply co-speciation. For example, it has been stated that ticks “seem to follow a pattern of being global generalists but local specialists” . The reslizards) , 53.Ixodes, with high values of nestedness, partner diversity, functional complementarity and resilience to extinction. Fisher’s alpha is also highest for the Palearctic and the Nearctic. Nevertheless, the comparison of the high values of Fisher’s alpha in the network of the Afrotropical region with other indices suggests that these results may be biased because of deficient sampling. Network indices for the Afrotropical network are suggestive of ticks parasitizing a wide range of vertebrate families, but also point to a deficient surveying in the region. Therefore, the results that indicate to a high specificity of Afrotropical Ixodes spp. are probably derived from the partial knowledge of tick-host associations because of incomplete sampling or surveys restricted to livestock. For instance, the host distribution does not limit the tick ranges in Africa, implicitly assuming that there is not a clear phylogenetic association of the tick fauna with vertebrates in the Afrotropical region [We found that the most robust networks resulted for both Nearctic and Palearctic species of l region . Furtherl region . This suIxodes [Ixodes tasmani group) and the rest of the species [Ixodes. However, other evidence has established that the genus Ixodes is not monophyletic [I. uriae, which is phylogenetically basal, is included in the Australian clade). Interestingly, the network of Australian Ixodes species and their hosts has the highest number of disconnected clusters and the lowest functional diversity and functional complementarity . The Australian network exhibits a lack of clustering as well as fewer branches and links, perhaps because complete branches of vertebrates and their ticks became extinct. These findings are compatible with an event, such as mass extinction of vertebrates, shaping poor connectivity and large modularity because of loss of connections. This possible host extinction event is also observed in the extreme ontogenetic switch that occurs among virtually all stages of Australian Ixodes spp. and every order of hosts. This suggests a need to re-adapt to new groups of hosts that were originally not commonly used by the primitive Australian Ixodes.The results for the Australasian region are noteworthy. There is evidence of two lineages in the genus Ixodes , includi species . Several species –59 have phyletic , with AuI. ricinus group of species, which is well known because of its implications in human and animal health and is therefore widely surveyed. Other taxa are confirmed to be a complex of species and are distributed worldwide (i.e. I. auritulus) or a complex of species that is present in wide areas of several biogeographical realms (i.e. I. affinis). The methods used in this study may be of interest for the elucidation of routes of circulation of tick-borne pathogens, with ticks exploiting a high diversity of reservoirs promoting more solid dissemination of pathogens. These hypotheses should be tested at the regional scale, linking with recent findings on the importance of vertebrate communities.These results have gaps. The results are based on data obtained from the literature, and medically prominent species could be over-represented. An extra bias may come from the collection pressure on some hosts, which may be either abundant or easily trappable. These hosts and their ticks would be over-represented compared with protected or rare species. Adhering to previous studies , such obIxodes spp. and their hosts. We proposed in this study the measure of the variability of the phylogenetic diversity of vertebrates used as hosts by the different stages as a method to evaluate the magnitude of such host switching. For those species for which enough data exist, a large interstage variability of hosts seems to be the rule. We hypothesize that, other than monoxenous species, ticks use the vertebrates that (i) provide an adequate environment for survival and development , such as the burrow of a vertebrate, (ii) contribute to the spread of the population to avoid competence phenomena for hosts in a site, either on long range migratory birds or the medium range distance favored by Carnivora or Artiodactyla, or (iii) support a massive increase of the tick population, feeding on large animals that consequently provide a large blood meal. The results support that, except for some cases , the association of Ixodes with vertebrates could be mainly ecological, ticks tracking the optimal environmental niche exploiting the vertebrates providing the best resilience of the tick population. The high values of ontogenetic switch detected in this study are suggestive of “leaps” among the hosts that colonize the most suitable tick environmental niche.Tick-host preferences have both ecological and epidemiological meanings. The ontogenetic switch is an important piece of information to address the original question of this study about an ecological or phylogenetic origin for the associations between Ixodes spp. The results also demonstrate that, in species for which enough data exist, the ontogenetic switch of hosts is evident. This fact suggests that Ixodes spp. cope with the environmental variability exploiting hosts that optimize the survival of the parasite under a gradient of abiotic conditions as the main selective pressure. We consider hosts as a secondary adaptation while sharing habitat with the ticks, with few exceptions. A strict phylogenetic link among vertebrates and ticks would exclude the shaping forces of the environment, restricting the ticks to the areas in which preferred hosts exist. Our results on the genus Ixodes do not support such a hypothesis, except in a few instances. Ticks with a wide ecological plasticity would colonize large areas, since they could use phylogenetically unrelated clades of hosts to which they are associated because of niche overlap or habitat sharing. The methods used in this study may be of interest for the elucidation of routes of circulation of tick-borne pathogens. These hypotheses should be tested also at the regional scale, linking with recent findings on the importance of the communities of vertebrates.We consider that, other than for a few species, the phylogenetic spectrum of vertebrates is not the main driver of host selection by Additional file 1. Complete network file (in “.graphml” format) as used throughout this study and the file of families of hosts, in “Nexus” format, obtained from the “Open Tree of Life”.Additional file 2: Figure S1. Representation of the complete network of Ixodes spp., families and orders of hosts, arranged using the Force Atlas 2 algorithm. Circles (nodes) are taxa. The lines (links) between pairs of nodes are relationships between ticks and hosts (i.e. a species of tick reported on a family of hosts). The width of the line is proportional to the number of co-occuring events, but the length results only from the algorithm producing the chart. Colors are clusters or groups of ticks and hosts that interact more frequently among them than with other taxa.


This paper addresses the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination progress in Australia. Globally, Australia was initially praised for its national COVID-19 response, reflecting well with regard to case numbers and mortality rates. However, Australia’s progress with its vaccine rollout has come under scrutiny. When compared globally, it fares very low in terms of the number of vaccine doses administered. This paper discusses the first three months of the vaccination process, and the challenges Australia faced during that time. Through an extensive literature review, data was collected on relevant topics concerning all aspects of the Australian COVID-19 situation. The following key points are discussed: the specific COVID-19 organisation at the federal vs. the state government levels, the Australian economy, the vaccine supply strategy, and the vaccine priority roll out. In conclusion, we highlight the impact of Australia initially relying heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which subsequently came under fire regarding safety issues likely linking the vaccine to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). The COVID-19 pandemic, as a public and global health emergency, has provided experts with a unique opportunity to apply a critical eye to pandemic preparedness plans  of governments around the world. As an isolated island nation with a strong economy and well-structured government pandemic plan, Australia was uniquely prepared to respond to the singular COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020. Australia received special recognition for its seemingly smooth handling of the pandemic before the development and distribution of vaccines ,4. This Additionally, the Australian economic response has protected its economy in ways that have been unmatched by many other countries, and have allowed for recovery in early 2021 . HoweverFor this paper, a narrative literature review was performed on a wide variety of data sources published until the end of May 2021. These sources included government reports, legal briefs, published papers, and Australian public news outlets. Particular focus was given to the following areas of interest: Australian public health regulations, demographic and epidemiological data, economic statistics, and data concerning Australia’s pharmaceutical industries.Government reports and governmental Department of Health websites constituted the primary sources of data with regard to the vaccination rollout and priority groups, as well as the political organization of the vaccination programmes . Data onSecondary sources of data were found through search engines such as PubMed and Google Scholar. These data were used to create a comprehensive case profile of the Australian situation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was then used to review and analyse the Australian COVID-19 response and vaccination strategy.At the end of 2020 or at the latest since early 2021, most high-income countries started rolling out mass vaccination campaigns against COVID-19. With the progress of vaccine manufacturing, countries enhanced their vaccination capacities and rapidly immunised their most vulnerable and exposed populations, and quickly moved to vaccinating the more general populations. At the end of May 2021, 72.3% of the adult population in the UK had received at least one dose of the vaccine. This number was 50% in the USA, and most Western European countries had administered around 50 doses per 100 inhabitants, and were observing a regression of the epidemic with a decrease in the incidence and hospitalizations and mortality rates [2 for 25 million inhabitants, 3.3% of whom are of Indigenous origin [Australia is one of the biggest countries in the world with a total area of 7,692,000 kms origin ,12. The s origin . The pros origin .Politically, Australia is run as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy composed of six states, and two internal territories. Under the federalist system, each jurisdiction has their own parliament and constitutions and can create state specific laws within their own geographical territory. The two mainland territories (the Northern Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)) have been given the right to a limited amount of self-governance from the federal government, controlled by a locally elected government . The fedIn November 2020, the Australian federal government published Australia’s COVID-19 Vaccination Policy . It inclAustralia’s first COVID-19 case was detected in January 2020 in Victoria in a traveller coming from Wuhan, China. Up until May 2021, the country experienced two waves of infections. One in March 2020, when the daily number of new detected cases peaked at 458 in one day, and a second one during the austral winter in July 2020, when up to 721 cases were reported in one day. In the early days of the vaccination campaign, in May 2021, a total of 30,004 cases were detected since the beginning of the pandemic and there were 910 deaths to mourn in Australia. At the same date, the 7-day average of new detected cases was 82, with the majority being acquired overseas and contained in quarantine hotels hosting citizens and residents coming back from abroad . AccordiFrom the outset, the federal government adopted a strict zero tolerance approach, and closed its national borders on the 20th of March 2020. Australia’s international borders have remained closed with strict entry restrictions since, in fact constituting measures that go against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) recommendations . CitizenInternally, each State and Territory has the right by law to close its own borders, and apply entry requirements as it wishes. The situations regarding state borders have been known to change at very short notice, and are ultimately responsive to frequently changing circumstances . Other nSince COVID-19 constitutes a public health crisis, official responsibility lies with the States and Territories to deal with the situation . HoweverOn the 13th of March 2020, the National Cabinet was created by the Australian Prime Minister, as part of the government’s response to the pandemic, to ensure effective communication and coordination between the Prime Minister himself, the State premiers, and the first ministers of Territories. It allows for horizontal communication across all the jurisdictions on COVID-19-related issues. Unlike in Parliament, where States are represented relative to population size, the national cabinet provides for equal representation and communication across States and Territories . The NatAustralia has the 12th largest economy in the world , and untWhereas the Australian economy was poised to make a modest come-back from a stagnating GDP in the first quarter of 2020, the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the country’s shores on the 25th of January 2020  constituSince the end of the Australian second wave in September 2020, the country has seen low daily numbers of new cases, which have been met with swift and strong responses from the State governments, with many regions having “snap” lockdowns, which arrived swiftly and with little notice, but only lasted a few days . As a reWith regard to vaccine production, the Australian government devoted AUD 1.9 billion to ensure access to vaccines, with a large part of this budget going towards agreements for the domestic production of the AstraZeneca vaccine . WhereasAs detailed in Given the controlled epidemiological situation in Australia in early 2021, and the fact that most of the cases were imported, in Phase 1a, the vaccination targeted workers with high exposure risk to potential cases coming from abroad, namely border workers and employees working in quarantine hotels. This is quite specific to Australia, to its epidemiological situation, and the way risks of outbreaks have been handled according to the zero-tolerance policy. Phase 1a also included frontline health care workers, and people in care residences where many outbreaks have occurred worldwide. During Phase 1a, 678,000 persons were expected to be vaccinated with two doses, unless they had already been infected in the past, then they were to receive one dose. Phase 1b focused on the people most at risk of developing a severe form of the disease, namely elderly people or adults with underlying medical conditions, but also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 55 or above. This priority in vaccination for Indigenous people is due to their higher risk of suffering from underlying conditions and having less access to health care, higher risk of chronic diseases than their non-Indigenous compatriots , greaterIn most high-income countries, the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 started in late 2020 or early in 2021. Australia kicked off its vaccination campaign on the 22nd of February 2021, after the provisional approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on the 25th of January 2021  and of tIn Australia, a key federal responsibility is to ensure population safety. Specifically looking at COVID-19 vaccinations, Australia’s Department of Health (DOH) provides many branches of organisations, and employs a lot of individuals who guarantee safety through maintaining vaccine regulations. The Australia Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) supplies advice surrounding COVID-19 immunisation programs and policies to the Australian Government Department of Health and the Australian Minister of Health.The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), part of the Australian DOH, works as a key vaccine regulator to guarantee the efficacy, quality and safety of vaccines before they are allowed to be used within Australia . During Since the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines in Australia, safety monitoring through the ATAGI and the TGA has been a continuous effort, as a responsibility of the federal government. After the global panic surrounding the safety of AstraZeneca , the natSome countries such as the UK, France, and the USA have been implementing vaccine injury compensation programs (VICPs), even before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Such programs mean that if an individual suffers from adverse side-effects following a vaccination, he or she can ask for compensation without having to go to court or provide evidence of negligence or any other kind of fault. According to this model, countries assume the liability in case of adverse side-effects from the vaccination and provide funding to compensate the person in question. Some countries have implemented VICPs following the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate their vaccine rollouts, and the COVAX facility  has creaThe implementation of such a non-fault compensation program provides a guarantee to individuals that they will be covered in case of a health problem following the vaccination. This can be seen as a possible tool to incentivize the population to become vaccinated and limit vaccine hesitancy . It alsoAustralia does not have such a program in place . This maWith regard to the storage and transportation of vaccines, Australia’s National Cabinet has aimed to create more of a coordinated response through the federal government, States, and Territories working interactively. For example, a State organizes the vaccination site, which then has to be agreed to by the Australian Government, so as to align it with the jurisdictional implementation plan. This then allows the federal government to be in charge of the storage and transportation of the vaccines, ensuring accurate distribution to the correct facilities within the States and Territories. Once the vaccine is delivered to the site, then responsibility for the storage, handling, and overall physical safety of the vaccine changes to the State. The management and arrangements of each vaccination site  then becomes the sole responsibility of the State .The federal government entrusted the logistics companies DHL and Linfox with the responsibility for the storage and distribution of all the vaccines throughout the territory, as well as for the related medical equipment such as syringes, needles, and personal protection equipment . The tasThe dispatch of the mRNA vaccine to the most remote areas in Australia is being facilitated by the installation of adapted freezers in a central hub from which the vaccines can then be transported to immunize the populations of the most remote areas. In the Torres Strait Islands for instance, the freezer is installed on Thursday Island and is used to store the doses necessary for the neighbouring islands . In earlThe tracking of doses and the follow up of the vaccination rollout data was entrusted to the company Accenture, which developed a solution especially designed for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The software developed by the company also keeps track of any reported side-effects.With limited doses of vaccines available, resource allocation is crucial within Australia as the vaccines must go to the most vulnerable first. In accordance with the COVID-19 policy, the allocation of vaccine doses for each jurisdiction is subject to the number of residents within the relevant phase of the priority roll out . The polThe vaccination rollout strategy in Australia is based on a personalized approach by general practitioners (GPs) within the communities . VaccinaAustralia has a long history of successes in vaccination campaigns and vaccination manufacturing. Already in the middle of the 19th century, Australia started producing a vaccine against smallpox, being one of the first countries in the world to kick off the manufacturing of vaccines . Since tSince the pandemic began, Australia has been very active in the vaccine race and entered into several agreements with manufacturers and research groups in order to ensure it would be able to immunize its population against COVID-19. As a result of all of the different agreements, Australia is one of the countries with the highest number of doses (five) secured per inhabitant ,91.Australia’s vaccine sourcing strategy consisted of investing in vaccines coming from various technologies in order to diversify the portfolio and increase the chances of success. The country however did not enter into agreements for every potentially successful vaccine candidate and initially picked only one vaccine of each type; the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for mRNA technology, the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca one for the adenovirus vector technology, and the Novavax Inc, a protein vaccine ,92. AustAustralia also tried to support an internally developed vaccine from the University of Queensland and had even entered into an agreement for a purchase of 51 million doses, to be produced by CSL, back in September 2020 . The firAt the time of the beginning of the national vaccination campaign in February 2021, Australia had secured 20 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech, 50 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, 25 million doses from the COVAX facility, and 53.8 million doses from Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines, of which 50 million were to be manufactured in Australia by CSL . HoweverProducing the vaccine onshore appears to be important to the Australian government, in order to reduce the dependency of the country on imports from foreign countries. This may explain the decision to back the Queensland University vaccine candidate and the AstraZeneca production by CSL in Melbourne. This issue has grown in importance since the European Commission blocked an export of 250,000 doses of the vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca in its European production plants resulting in a lack of confidence from the Australian government concerning future deliveries ,92,95.The domestic production of the 50 million doses in 2021 of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine was meant to be the angular stone of the Australian vaccine supply strategy. However, this plan fell through when the ATAGI advised that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should not be used for people under 50 years of age, unless the benefit of the vaccination clearly outweighs the associated risk . ConsequThe first move from the commonwealth government, after the ATAGI announcement, was to purchase an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, but they are not expected to be delivered before the end of 2021 . In paraCompared with the praise Australia initially received for its COVID-19 management, the country’s position with regard to its vaccination rollout strategy has fallen far below target. The pandemic response resulted in the creation of a National Cabinet which can be seen as a success. However, organisational issues within the various Australian governments are not unfamiliar. Interestingly, vertical and shared coordination and communication strategies—a main objective of the Cabinet—are questionable with regard to the vaccination rollout.The COVID-19 response at the State and Territory levels, can be seen as effective. Fast lockdowns, mandatory quarantines and track and trace systems managed to keep infections low and controlled for several months. However, at the beginning of the vaccination rollout, State governments were heavily criticized for their management, especially by the community saying that the rollout was too slow, with certain high-risk individuals who were still not vaccinated by the end of May 2021. As the rollout was still in Phase 1a and 1b for all States, this can therefore be seen as a problem coming from the overarching government. Furthermore, the governments of NSW and Queensland have publicly criticised the federal government, stating it is to be blamed for the slow progress within their communities. The Australian government also promised domestic production and that in-house production would meet the target of one million doses per week. As manufacturing started in March 2021, this has also been another target which has not been met by the federal government. Moreover, the fact that the federal government has held off sharing accurate information on the number of vaccines available has only created mismatched organisation and public dissatisfaction with regard to the vaccination campaign.Whereas the Australian economy’s success has been well documented, there are some weak points which have been highlighted throughout 2020. For example, the Australian COVID-19 situation exposes a logistic/supply chain issue inherent to the Australian pandemic response due to the country’s isolation. It also reveals a huge vulnerability inherent to Australia’s profile, namely that it is, functionally, at the end of the supply chain for many essential goods . This isIn this regard, the strategy of the Australian government to push for onshore production of vaccines seems reasonable, given the global pandemic situation and the race most wealthy countries entered in to secure enough vaccines to immunize their populations. The delay in vaccine delivery, due to the supply chain difficulties described above, confirms the appropriateness of this approach. However, given the Australian history of innovation and large-scale manufacturing in vaccines, the question of why Australia has invested significantly less in the COVID-19 vaccine than other high-income countries may be raised.It is very easy to make recommendations or criticize a country’s actions in hindsight, especially regarding an unprecedented situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, given the very aggressive and initially successful response of Australia to the COVID-19 epidemic, the government’s investment in the vaccination campaign is relatively low. Especially when compared, for instance, with the USD 18 billion invested by the USA under the Trump administration. It could have been expected that Australia would take all possible measures to immunize its population as soon as possible. Observing the vaccine strategies of other high-income, high-resource countries over the same time, makes it clear that Australia could have invested its money into vaccine acquisition more wisely . MoreoveFor months, Australia was able to contain the epidemic much better than most countries and might have appeared to be less in need of immediate large vaccine coverage. However, this had only been achieved at the economic and ethical cost of closing its borders. Considering the significant number of Australian nationals still stranded outside of the country, this choice is becoming problematic from a human rights perspective. This is in addition to the concerning (though clearly effective) levels of restriction of movement when a region is under a snap lockdown.A holistic view on the relative success of the Australian economy in 2020 cannot ignore the factors which might make this recovery heterogeneous within Australian society. In particular, Indigenous people are likely to be in an industry that is most affected by the COVID-19 . They arAccess to healthcare is also an important issue for the Australian indigenous people because of the higher incidence and mortality rates due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) compared with non-Indigenous populations ,106. HowAustralia’s COVID-19 response in Indigenous communities has been praised as a successful one, when compared with other countries with Indigenous populations such as Canada and the US and comparing Australia’s own experience in previous pandemics ,119. IncAnother issue that Australia is facing in its vaccination rollout is an increase in vaccine hesitancy towards the AstraZeneca vaccine, even amongst people over 50 years old. This was particularly so, since the controlled epidemiological situation the country experienced for months provided a sense of safety to the general population and the negative constraining effects of the pandemic on day-to-day life were relatively limited for a long time. Already before the vaccination campaign started, vaccine hesitancy was being reported in Australia . It seemOverall, it is clear that in terms of dividing up resources to acquire vaccines, Australia put all its eggs in the metaphorical basket of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is likely that, if the AstraZeneca vaccine had not been associated with any serious side effects and the ATAGI had not changed its recommendation for people below 50 years of age, the Australian vaccination rollout would have run relatively smoothly, except for the delayed start up. However, the complications and side effects from TTS associated with this vaccine cannot be ignored. There was always a risk in articulating most of the vaccination plan around one single vaccine candidate, and a more diversified strategy would have mitigated this risk. The costs would have been high but negligible compared with the economic and human cost of keeping the country’s borders closed. It is important to note that in singular situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where the whole world is rushing to find and create interventions to keep the global economy from collapsing and to prevent even more widespread deaths, there are many unknowns, and there are a variety of factors that can go wrong. For this reason, future pandemic preparedness plans should aim to anticipate these events and plan to cast as wide a net as possible, in terms of acquiring novel pharmaceuticals.Another interesting point is that Australia has had access to vaccines that many other countries will not see for months, yet they have not been able to meet any of their targets. Looking at Australia’s privileged position from a different angle, one comes to this question: does it make sense, from a logistics and moral perspective, to criticize a country for not being so selfish as to make advance purchase agreements with the manufacturers of all the potentially successful vaccine candidates, when many low-income countries that are part of the COVAX facility may not get their full doses of vaccines until 2024 ? From thAustralia had extremely low daily cases for several months and its economy was able to stay afloat. The inclusion of Indigenous communities in planning and response has led to tailor-made interventions which have proven to be extremely effective. Further comparative studies between Indigenous population health outcomes in different countries after the pandemic could help highlight the extent of the success of the Australian model in that regard.With regard to concern for anti-vaccination sentiment, Australia does not appear to have as much of a cultural precedent for these attitudes as other Western high-income countries, judging by vaccination rates ,127. At Looking towards the future, Australia’s vaccination strategy is changing daily. The most recent changes have pivoted production towards building capacity for mRNA vaccine production, which is an advantage not only for handling the pandemic but will likely be an asset for the country’s pharmaceutical industry as a whole. However, the fruits of these efforts will not be seen until at least 2022, when in-house vaccine production will finally be able to provide mRNA vaccines. This period of time will only serve to widen the gap between Australia and its contemporaries even further. Other high-income countries have achieved high vaccination rates and many in Europe and beyond have implemented vaccine passports and opened up their borders for regular leisure travel. It is very likely that without opening up its borders, Australia may lose its “lead” on other countries, with other parts of the world moving into stronger growth positions. To make matters worse, Australia’s trade relationships are becoming increasingly unstable. Due partially to tensions over the investigations into the origins of the coronavirus, China, which was previously one of Australia’s biggest trade partners, has called to stop imports of Australian goods, and trade negotiations have halted completely . This si