Covid Australia live news: Sydney doctor's plea to the unvaccinated

A Sydney doctor has unloaded on anti-vaxxers saying "our pre-Covid life has died" and said vaccination was the only way forward. 

Sydney doctor Sacha Kepreotis has issued an impassioned plea for Australians to get vaccinated as frontline healthcare workers struggle with increasing hospitalisations caused by the Delta variant.

In a viral post, he details the long-term effects of Covid-19, which he says are far more concerning than the "rare and mostly treatable vaccine side-effects".

"Long term breathing problems, blood clots, myocarditis, disabling fatigue, impaired concentration, memory problems, loss of taste/smell, prolonged hospitalisation, loss of employment and more to be discovered," he wrote.

Dr Kepreotis said vaccines would be the only way we'd be able to return to "some semblance of normality".

"As much as I hate to acknowledge, but our pre-covid life has died … Lockdown, masks, social distancing will only shield our healthcare system from complete collapse until vaccination rates are high enough that we can reopen with protection against severe infection."

This comes as Australians will have a third vaccine option within weeks with the country’s drug regulator set to approve the Mod­erna jab within a fortnight.

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Originally published as Covid Australia live news: Sydney doctor's plea to the unvaccinated