The Informer: Don't forget to keep sight of COVID pandemic, medical experts warn

Although Australia has the world's highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate and about 40 people die from the virus every day, it's all but slipped off the national agenda.

Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Terry Slevin told the Medical Journal of Australia the disease had taken an extraordinary toll on frontline health workers.

"After two years on high alert, plunging in and out of isolation, staring at every stranger's cough, sanitising our hands like there's no tomorrow, we just don't have the energy anymore."

Our apathy could have real-world consequences, Professor Slevin said.

"Already we're seeing a fight for people in public health to hang on to what resources they've got," he said.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said a mix of fatigue and complacency had seen the virus shunted from the national spotlight.

"I think, past the silliness of this election, we do need to refocus," he said.

Speaking of the election, it's day 36 of the campaign and the finish line is in sight.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has conceded a superannuation savings scheme for first-home buyers would have a "marginal" impact on house prices.

The policy, called the Super Home Buyer Scheme, would start in July 2023 under a re-elected Coalition government.

The maximum amount that would be invested under the plan would be the lower of $50,000 for each individual or 40 per cent of their total superannuation balance.

But Superannuation Minister Jane Hume told ABC radio house prices would rise in the short term under the scheme.

Mr Morrison later denied there would be a negative impact on affordability, saying Ms Hume was referring to the impact of the Super Home Buyer Scheme in isolation

"So when taken together, and when you look at the proportion of first home buyers of the entire real estate market, it's quite marginal," he said.

Labor has confirmed it would not support the scheme, and reaction from economists has been mixed.

Mr Morrison has also defended the handling of the AUKUS negotiations, following reports he misled the United States on the level of bipartisanship.

Mr Morrison said: "This was a process that, for 18 months, painstakingly working through incredible detail, incredibly sensitive issues, highly confidential. This wasn't something I was going to be loose with."

The United States had expected the Morrison government to brief Labor, but the opposition found out the day before the agreement was made public, the Nine newspapers have reported.

Mr Albanese said: "I have national security briefings all the time. What this Prime Minister always does is put his political interests first before the national interest, it's always about the politics."

Meanwhile, it has been suggested Ukraine could win the war against Russia - an outcome few analysts predicted at the beginning of the conflict.

Russia has attacked positions in eastern Ukraine as it tries to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Donbas and fend off a counteroffensive around the city of Izium.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia's offensive in Donbas had stalled and Ukraine could win.

"Russia's war in Ukraine is not going as Moscow had planned," Mr Stoltenberg said on Sunday.

Top US intelligence officials last week said Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be preparing for a long conflict.

Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, had said before the Senate armed services committee that the conflict was at "a bit of a stalemate".

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