Keith Woods’ opinion column: Anti-vaxxers aren’t the only selfish ones – we’re hoarding vaccines

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed a disturbing human trait that could soon come back to bite us – and it’s not just ignorance, writes Keith Woods.

Covid-19 has lots of symptoms.

Headaches, shortness of breath, a loss of taste and smell. The pandemic has also seen the spread of another nausea-inducing, but curable problem – an outbreak of selfishness.

In the maelstrom of online debate in the last week, as anti-vaxxers on the Gold Coast mount their futile last stand, one contribution in particular caught this columnist’s eye.

“If you get vaccinated, that is your choice and if you don’t, that is your choice,” the person wrote. “We are all individuals.”

That, of course, is the nub of the problem.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, there have been people making choices as individuals, for themselves, without regard to the outcomes for the community at large.

It’s not just anti-vaxxers who are guilty of this affliction. Not by any means.

The selfishness started with the hoarding of toilet rolls. And more seriously, it’s finishing with the hoarding of vaccines themselves.

The first sign of selfishness. Picture: Brendan Radke

The Omicron variant may never have emerged from southern Africa had the western world, Australia included, not been selfishly stockpiling jabs.

According to the International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organisation, Australia now enough shots reserved to vaccinate the whole population almost five times over.

In contrast, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance pressure group, Sub-Saharan Africa has only received enough doses to vaccinate one in eight people. No wonder it was the source of new variants.

“With the new threat of the Omicron variant, it is clear that we cannot just booster our way out of the pandemic while leaving much of the developing world behind,” Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager Anna Marriott said.

“Unless all countries are vaccinated as soon as possible we could see wave after wave of variants.

“What is the point in developing new vaccines in 100 days if they are then only sold in limited amounts to the highest bidder, once again leaving poor nations at the back of the queue?”

There’s worse. Astonishingly, as Queensland edges past the 80 per cent double dosed milestone, the equivalent figure for Papua New Guinea is 2.2 per cent. The next Omicron could form right on our doorstep.

RAAF personnel load Covid-19 vaccines bound for Papua New Guinea onto a C-17A Globemaster III at RAAF Base Amberley. Picture: Sgt Peter Borys.

A small number of clued-in Australians have spotted the danger.

In a letter to Scott Morrison last week, a number of prominent scientist, doctors and business leaders, including Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott, implored the Prime Minister to do more.

The letter said “urgent action” was needed by Australia “to commit its fair share to vaccinate the world”.

The problem is that selfishness is ultimately counter-productive. Hoarding goods at the start of the pandemic caused a run on supermarkets that affected everyone.

Hoarding vaccines could also come back to bite us – by allowing a variant to form that evades their protection.

If that happens, we could be back to lockdowns and border closures, no matter what anyone thinks their individual rights are.

The Omicron variant is something the western world has brought on itself.

Like all Covid-19 variants it induces many symptoms in sufferers. But it is itself a symptom of a wider malaise: the outbreak of selfishness we have witnessed in the last two years.

THESE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO LOSE FREEDOM

DECEMBER 1: Hundreds of people at Broadbeach at the weekend were keen to talk about freedom. So keen in fact that when they weren’t cheering Pauline Hanson, they kept chanting about it.

So let’s talk about freedom.

Like the freedom of a child with leukaemia.

Children with leukaemia are severely immunocompromised. If there’s anything going round in the community, they are at heightened risk of catching it. Anything like Covid-19.

Adding to concerns for such patients, a French study found that mortality of children aged between one and 15 years old undergoing treatment for acute leukaemia who catch Covid-19 is around 30 per cent – many times that of the general population.

So, given vaccines are not available for under-12s, if and when Covid-19 becomes endemic in our community, the only option for such patients will be to remain indoors, avoiding contact with other people to the greatest extent possible.

Without a high level of vaccination in the wider community, this is what “freedom” could soon look like for them.

Protesters Rally against mandatory vaccines at the Millions March at Kurrawa Park on Saturday. Picture: Mike Batterham.

Let’s also talk about freedom for elderly Gold Coasters living in aged care homes.

We know that older people are more severely affected by Covid-19. As was seen in Victoria last year, any incursion of the virus into aged care homes can be devastating. That’s why when there’s an outbreak, visitors are no longer allowed.

These people would be going nowhere and seeing no-one bar their carers.

So much for freedom.

Let’s also talk about the freedom of our healthcare staff. Their freedom to not have to wear full PPE throughout their working days. Their freedom to not be overwhelmed with a sudden influx of seriously ill patients.

Their freedom to be able to return to their loved ones after their shifts safe in the knowledge that all they are bringing home is a pay packet.

You get the drift. Freedom is not a one-way street. It is not just for individuals.

As a society, there are things we must do to preserve the safety and freedom of everyone.

Your “freedom” can inadvertently lead to someone else’s prison.

The “pro-choice” label anti-vaxxers have given themselves is also a misnomer. Immunocompromised children under 12, who cannot themselves get vaccinated, don’t get to choose. Vulnerable old people in aged care homes don’t get to choose. Healthcare staff don’t get to choose.

When people choose to take the vaccine, they are choosing not just to protect themselves, but also more vulnerable members of the community.

It’s that simple.

Pauline Hanson addresses protesters at Kurrawa Park on Saturday. Picture: Mike Batterham.

It was disheartening to see so many people on the Gold Coast at the weekend railing against vaccines and perfectly reasonable vaccine mandates.

It is also quite astonishing, in this columnist’s view, to see so many so-called “conservatives” rallying to their ignorant and selfish cause.

Yes, state premiers, including here in Queensland, have at times gone over the top with their harsh rules and border closures.

The fact that thousands of Queenslanders who are double vaccinated and pose little-to-no risk to the community remain marooned in northern NSW is a thundering disgrace.

But opposition to vaccination mandates is hardly the cause to die in a ditch for.

It’s bizarre to see conservatives getting to a point where they are on the same page as Nimbinites who reject western medicine and put their faith in the healing powers of magic crystals.

A virus started in a totalitarian communist state can be ended by the genius of science emanating from the capitalist system – but they reject it.

The most vulnerable in our community and hardworking healthcare workers are the ones who will ultimately pay the price.

It’s their freedom we should be fighting for.