Byron Shire locals trying to stop Covid virus, vaccine misinformation

They are the new children of the revolution, the Byron Shire’s influencers taking to social media to counter the Covid conspiracy spreading since the pandemic. While the region is notorious for anti-vaccine misinformation, locals are fighting back.

Byron Bay’s anti-vax influencers have made the area notorious for misinformation and conspiracy — but the “silent majority” is fighting back with facts, figures and common sense.

Benny Zable, 75, is one of the first Nimbin hippies who settled in the area after the Aquarius festival in 1973. He recently got his Covid vaccination and posted it on Facebook as the first man in Nimbin to get vaccinated. He lost friends overnight.

“They think this whole thing is some sort of conspiracy,” he said.

“When I posted the picture on social media I got a lot of flak, I got all kinds of people reacting to me like I was a traitor. They said I was one of ‘them’, whoever ‘them’ are. They are no longer my friends. I don’t want to have anything to do with people abusing me over my right to get vaccinated.”

One of Nimbin’s original hippies Benny Zable gets vaccinated - and loses friends. Picture: Supplied

Nicqui Yadzi set up Mullumbimby Flattening The Curve group on social media when the pandemic hit, for those in the community who wanted evidenced-based science on Covid amid a plethora of conspiracy theories being shared online.

“People around here genuinely wanted real information,” Ms Yadzi said.

“There is so much misinformation here, there is this loud, minority group who are very bloody vocal, the anti-vaxxers, the conspiracy ones that mix it all together, 5G, microchips in Covid vaccines and chemtrails and lizard people. I mean, it’s like a mental illness here.

“They follow YouTube and bloggers … people that don’t have any credentials whatsoever and they follow their words blindly and accuse us of being sheep.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been abused in the street for wearing a mask, or having a view that isn’t theirs. It’s not peace, love and lentils.”

Last weekend, when Sydney man Zoran Radovanovic travelled to Byron Bay with his two sons, allegedly while infectious with Covid, one anti-vaccine activist posted on social media about only buying from shops in the shire that did not ask them to wear a mask.

“Every shop that didn’t ask us to wear a mask we bought something,” he proudly boasted.

Anthony Golle’s posts on social media about shopping in venues where they don't ask for masks to be worn.

Several businesses in the main street of nearby Mullumbimby have signs “no mask, we don’t ask”, while others have even banned the vaccinated, accusing them of “shedding the virus”, which has no factual base.

Kirra Pendergast, who grew up in Mullumbimby and teaches cybersecurity to schoolchildren and how to determine evidence-based information on social media, is also a member of Mullumbimby Flattening The Curve because she has had enough.

“There are a lot of influencers around here that have a really big voice in their own echo chamber,” Ms Pendergast said.

“(They) have a big influence over a whole heap of people and they are not fact-checking, it’s like consuming junk food.”

One went viral on social media last year for a YouTube post claiming you “you cannot catch a virus because it is impossible” and that the only way to catch Covid “is to inject it into your bloodstream”.

“People will say they don’t believe the mainstream media but believe the complete rubbish on YouTube and that is what concerns me,” Ms Prendergast said.

“It scares me, living among it. I’m scared for people like my parents. We’ve seen this week just how vulnerable this community is, there are people in this community that are very vulnerable.

Kirra Pendergast is a local Byron social media educator who despairs at the misinformation kids are getting.

“We have a small but loud group of anti-vaxxers, but the majority of us are very sensibly following the rules. We totally have a bad name because of them, it’s not all of us, it a small minority but they are very active on social media.

“They don’t believe in face masks, don’t believe in vaccinations and don’t want them in their temple of body, but it is the ultimate in white privilege.

“To be able to deny it because you have a choice is unbelievable but 500 people are dying a day in Indonesia at the moment.”

Local comedian, mother of five and now Greens candidate Mandy Nolan, said the area had been stigmatised by the noisy minority.

“We probably have the highest level of unimmunised kids, we have a whooping cough season up here and there has always been a lot of suspicion with big pharma,” Ms Nolan said.

“But with a global pandemic when the only way out is vaccination, the real problem is the misinformation coming from parts of the community.

“So many of my friends want to get vaccinated but they can’t get in until October. I actually think because we have a proportion of the community who don’t believe Covid exists, it makes us a more at-risk community.

Mandy Nolan, from Mullumbimby, gets vaccinated … and then gets abused. Picture: Supplied

“It’s a bigger reason to get vaccinated so we can protect the community who won’t get vaxxed and won’t socially distance and won’t test if they get symptoms. We have to see them as the vulnerable.”

When she received her Covid shots on social media, she was accused of being “brainwashed by big pharma” but she was pleased she did get more support than hate.

“Most people here are doing the right thing but the people that aren’t are very visible and very loud,” she said.

“But when more people like Benny Zable get vaccinated, it shows there are many across the board up here who would be seen as alternative who are getting vaccinated and believe in science.”