Matthew Abraham: Is the horse bolting on SA’s vaccine-fearing masses?

The penny has dropped for the government but as it finally sets about dropping needless vaccine barriers, SA’s the only state with rising hesitancy, writes Matthew Abraham.

Thomas Hobson had a rule for customers wanting to hire one of the 40 horses he kept in his stables.

While they might think they could rent any nag they wished, Hobson insisted they had to take the one in the stall closest to the stable door. Legend has it he did this to avoid customers wearing out the best horses.

The Cambridge livery owner has been dead neigh (sorry) on 400 years, but the phrase “Hobson’s choice” lives on. A Hobson’s choice is a free choice in which only one thing is offered. And that’s precisely the “free choice” being offered to South Australians who choose not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. It’s a Hobson’s choice because the alternative to being vaccinated is you’ll be forced to live like a hermit, and that’s no choice at all in a free and fair society.

Premier Steven Marshall has declared he won’t make Covid vaccinations compulsory. But while he’s saying one thing, he’s doing another.

Let’s just be honest and call it for what it is. Being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is compulsory for public hospital nurses and other staff. No jab, no job.

But it’s also quietly being made compulsory for virtually every private sector occupation that comes within cooee of the government, even those who have zero physical contact with the outside world beyond a keyboard. No jab, no contract.

It’s also fast becoming compulsory for any community event sponsored by the government.

During the week, we learned you’ll be free to let your dreadlocks down at next year’s Womad festival but only if you’re fully vaccinated. Hobson would approve.

Vaccination will be compulsory if you want a life. Want a haircut? No jab, no perm. A meal out? No jab, no schnitty.

I rolled my sleeve up for the Covid vaccine as soon as SA Health let me. They took their sweet time. I’m fully juiced up with two shots of the trusty AstraZeneca, now rebranded Vaxzevria. It’s a terrific, safe vaccine that’s saved half the planet but won’t be produced or offered in Australia after the end of the year.

“Freedom Rally” protestors march in Adelaide. Picture: Emma Brasier

It’s a tragedy the Morrison government was spooked early by the hysteria over the rare side-effect of the AZ vaccine, sowing the seeds of doubt in millions of Australian minds.

Anti-vaxxer fruit loops drive me nuts.

But many, maybe most, of those hesitating about getting a Covid vaccine aren’t fruitcake anti-vaxxers. Most are already vaccinated against the full range of misery the world has to offer. For whatever reason, they’re genuinely rattled by the Covid jab.

While it may sound ridiculous to argue refusing to get vaccinated against Covid doesn’t make you an anti-vaxxer, the statistics say otherwise.

About 60 per cent of adult South Australians are fully vaccinated. Hard-core anti-vaxxer numbers normally sit at below 5 per cent of our community. Does anyone believe the remaining 35 per cent of people have suddenly become rabid anti-vaxxers? Or are they just taking their sweet time, or simply too worried to jump?

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier. Picture: Dean Martin

Our “roadmap to freedom” relies on SA reaching a target of 80 per cent fully vaccinated. That is proving to be a high bar. In some areas it’s stuck in the mid-40s.

The Covid Vaccine Hesitancy Tracker run by the Melbourne Institute shows vaccine hesitancy rates across Australia continue to steadily fall, down from 15 per cent to 13.3 per cent between September 23 and October 15. That’s the good news. The bad news is SA is “the only state where vaccine hesitancy has increased”, rising from 14.8 per cent to 19.2 per cent between September 12 and October 10, the institute reports.

“Vaccine hesitancy is now highest in South Australia (19.2 pc) and lowest in Victoria (10.1 pc),” it says.

Punishing, ridiculing or ostracising the vaccine hesitant won’t win them over. It risks driving them into the unjabbed arms of the wacky political fringe, finding a home perhaps in Craig Kelly’s United Australia party or Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The penny now seems to be dropping. After months of erecting dumb, bureaucratic hurdles to jump over to get vaccinated, the Marshall government has launched a sausage sizzle strategy, with free snags and entertainment at walk-in, no-appointment vaccination hubs this weekend. Finally, it’s a realisation the bland, bureaucratic vaccination campaign featuring Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier – yawn – isn’t cutting the mustard with the unconverted.

If you’ve been wavering, saddle up for your free snag and jab. And let’s hope the vaccine horse hasn’t already bolted.