David Penberthy: You’re free to be an anti-vaxxer, you’re just not coming to my pub

These people risk nothing less than death through their stupidity. The more of them there are, the worse off we all are, writes David Penberthy.

When news broke on Tuesday that we were heading into a hard seven-day lockdown that night, the majority of South Australians approached it with resignation and calmness.

Not so the bloke who arrived at Aldinga Mitre 10 at 11.55am where I was buying some light bulbs.

“I’m sorry sir but you can’t come into the store without a mask,” the young female shop assistant said to the 50-ish looking man.

“Who says I have to wear one?” he asked, standing at a counter covered with A4 yellow notices issued by the government of SA saying he had to wear one.

“I’m sorry sir but it is now the law,” she said again.

“It’s not the damned law!” he shouted back at her. “You tell me what law states that I have to wear one?”

“I’m sorry sir but they’re the rules, because of the lockdown you can’t come in without one. That’s why we have all these signs everywhere. We have to tell people to wear one.”

With a theatrical flourish he folded his arms and shook his head and then declared: “I am f…ing NEVER shopping in Mitre 10 again!” before storming off to the carpark.

I gave the girl a smile. “Far out,” she said. “At least I was being civil.”

She was. Exceedingly so.

A man does the right thing and wears a mask as he walks past the Adelaide Convention Picture: Getty Images

When I got out to the carpark this halfwit was still there, striking up indignant conversation with complete strangers about how his human rights had just been violated.

One of the blokes he bailed up was another tradie who, like me, was wearing a mask and just going about his business.

The angry bloke drove away, still shaking his head angrily. The tradie looked at me and summed things up well.

“What a f...ing idiot,” he said.

Give that man a newspaper column. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

I was reticent to mention this case of the Mitre 10 moron as it is an outlier when measured against the overwhelmingly community-minded and rational response of people in this state to the lockdown laws.

South Australians are better than pretty much anyone at knuckling down for the collective good. The truth is, though, that there’s more than a few people who fit into the same category as my Mitre 10 mate.

One was arrested on Wednesday, a 56-year-old Strathalbyn woman who refused to wear a mask at a Littlehampton supermarket and, when confronted about it, refused to give her name or address, as if she were some political prisoner.

Everyone I know has tales of being barrelled past by the angry non-QR coder at the supermarket. Those mad bastards who think the government is going to spy on them, or that the one-second process of checking in is both a waste of time and an infringement on their liberties.

In the vaccination space, many of us know someone who rails against the apparent dangers of getting immunised and thinks it is their job to tell anyone who will listen how the whole thing is a con.

I’m not talking about the new class of vaccine waverers who have been alarmed by the confusion over the safety or otherwise of AstraZeneca. (Even though I would say to them anything AZ can dish up is a hell of a lot less scary than Covid-19.)

I am talking here about that small percentage of people who – invariably armed with no knowledge of the law and no knowledge of science – will rail against measures that the vast majority of us recognise as essential for our collective survival.

Here are three basic medical facts:

The best way to stop Covid’s spread is to mask up in public;

The best way to let health experts know where spreads are occurring – and to save our own lives and the lives of others if we’re in the midst of an outbreak – is by registering our whereabouts through QR codes; and,

The best way to stop yourself from dropping dead from Covid is by getting vaccinated.

All seems pretty straightforward to me.

That old newshound Frank Pangallo and I have had our problems relationship-wise in his new capacity as a politician. But I was cheering him on the other day when he came out giving it with both barrels to those who, not through hesitancy but conspiracy theories, refused to vaccinate themselves and, shamefully, even their children.

Pangallo argued Australia should take the same approach as some other countries in precluding people who chose not to get vaccinated from dining out, going to pubs, seeing films, bands or plays, or going to any public events with crowds.

SA Best MP Frank Pangallo took aim at anti-vaxxers affect on society this week. Picture: Keryn Stevens

He said those who had been vaccinated should carry a “vaxport” – proof they had been given the jab. Pangallo even went so far as to say vaccinations should be made compulsory.

While I regard that last step as a bridge too far, and one that would ultimately backfire, I see no reason why the majority of us should have our safety jeopardised by those who thumb their noses at science.

Or to put it another way, the sum total of being that anti-social should be you are precluded from social settings. You’re free to be an anti-vaxxer, you’re just not coming to my pub.

Similar laws now apply with childcare. Surely they can apply to the side bar at the Goody Tavern, the band room at The Gov… all those other beloved social institutions which we have missed so dearly.

The sad and grim reality is that, when faced with something like Covid and its future variants, there is something that will ultimately deal with those who refuse to share in the medical benefits of proven vaccines.

Charles Darwin wrote about it.

He called it survival of the fittest.

These people risk nothing less than death through their stupidity. The more of them there are, the worse off we all are.

We can only hope they don’t take too many sane and sensible people with them.

Originally published as David Penberthy: You’re free to be an anti-vaxxer, you’re just not coming to my pub