Opinion: Stop pretending there’s any comparison between vaccine rules and Nazi Germany

Likening the State Government’s ban on the unvaccinated to Auschwitz is highly ignorant. People can choose not to get the jab, but then they must live with the consequences, writes Kylie Lang.

It’s a low act, even for rabid anti-vaxxers who have defined themselves by ignorance and insensitivity.

When the State Government finally gave businesses some clarity on how they’d be operating once borders open on December 17 and Delta streams in, the anti-vax minority likened the situation to Nazi Germany.

On Tuesday when news dropped that only fully vaccinated people would be allowed into sports stadiums, pubs, restaurants, clubs, museums, music venues and
so on, the mob went (even more) feral.

Never mind that similar restrictions are already in place in NSW, Victoria and many places around the world – Queensland was likened to a concentration camp.

“Vaccine rewards are the same as being at Auschwitz” was one of the memes circulating on social media.

And this: “Bringing your child to the clinic for vaccinations is literally like bringing your child to Auschwitz!!!”.

No, it’s not. Not even close.

Did Jews have a choice to go to death camps? No.

Is living in a Covid-normal Queensland going to be anything remotely like being interned in a Nazi slaughterhouse? No.

Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku, who passed away last month at age 101, endured enormous horrors in Auschwitz. These included the fatal gassing of his parents, being brutally beaten, and seeing men throwing themselves onto electric fences to end their suffering.

People who choose, for whatever reason, not to get vaccinated should expect to live with the consequences of that choice.

These include dying from Covid, fighting for life in a hospital intensive care unit and, in five weeks’ time, being excluded from certain venues.

For those who beat their chests saying “my body, my choice”, this will be your new reality.

I get that some people object to being told what to do, and that the incoming mandate has upset a lot of Queenslanders, including some who are vaccinated, but by the same token, people have had months to roll up their sleeves and comply with health directives.

Vaccination numbers have surged since Tuesday’s announcement. Picture: Richard Walker

When borders finally open, we are told the highly contagious Delta strain will arrive with a vengeance. Around one million unvaccinated Queenslanders will be playing Russian roulette with their lives.

Those who say they can’t understand the difference between the unvaxxed and vaxxed being able to congregate together as they’ve done thus far clearly haven’t been paying attention.

While Queensland has been largely spared the virus, this will change come December 17.

Modelling by the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute indicates up to 2000 infections and 150 deaths in the first 90 days alone.

Vaccination is the best protection we have. And the greater the herd immunity, the safer we will all be.

Being immunised might not stop you catching Covid, but your symptoms will be less severe.

Data crunched by the Washington Post shows a fully vaccinated person has a greater chance of dying from a lightning strike, a wasp or bee sting, a dog attack, a car crash, drowning, sunstroke, or choking on food than dying from Covid.

Facts and science have long eluded anti-vaxxers.

But for them to now introduce claims of Nazism just shows how desperate and distasteful they are.

As Jason Steinberg, of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, commented this week, linking the two “diminishes the concept of the most evil time in history where not just Jews lost their lives, but also 11 million other people who were murdered by the Nazis just because they were different”.

On the freedom to choose to get vaccinated, Mr Steinberg said: “The six million Jews who were exterminated under the Nazi regime had no choice.”

Queenslanders have waited a long time for borders to reopen – with countless stories of heartbreak, separation from loved ones and business casualties – and soon we get to become part of Australia again.

Long-suffering restaurants and other establishments will be able to operate at capacity, for fully-vaccinated patrons.

If you want to participate, vaccinate. It’s that simple.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of the Courier-Mail

[e-mail]