Opinion: Tom Tate tells Gold Coast to get vaccinated during war with Covid

The world is at war with Covid-19 and Australians need to stand side-by-side and get vaccinated for the country’s future, says Tom Tate.

AS Australia heads for an open skies and open borders future come early December, the message for non-vaccinated Australians is becoming stark: get vaccinated or prepare for possible admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) facility.

Let’s not be fooled by the rubbish being bandied about social media, largely from the non-vaccinated, about how this is all a government-led conspiracy to control your mind.

This is about our nation’s economic and social future. As the Governor-General, Sir David Hurley, said to me in a telephone call recently: we are at war with the virus.

Sir David Hurley said to Tom Tate in a telephone call “we are at war with the virus”. Picture: Tony McDonough / NCA NewsWire,

In war, Australians have stood side-by-side through other global conflicts. Standing united is the only way to beat an enemy and ensure our freedom. Covid-19 is that enemy.

As a double-vaccinated Aussie, I’d be happy to have a booster shot every six months if it means opening our skies - and borders - so our children are not weighed down with multi-trillion-dollar debt in decades to come.

Someone has to pay for the debt burden being accumulated by the federal and state governments.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate tells city get vaccinated or prepare for possible admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) facility. Picture: Tertius Pickard

That said, I strongly support stimulus funding to keep our livelihoods afloat now but stimulus has to end soon and the best way to achieve that is through an 80 per cent vaccinated community. We will never achieve 100 per cent vaccination as people have rights and some will choose not to be vaccinated. Therefore, it is foolish for some medical association officials to say it may be better to wait until we reach 90 per cent – we may never get there given there will always be anti-vaxxers.

The latest debate is around hospitals and whether they can cope. The nation’s health systems will be tested by three waves of demand. Firstly, the unvaccinated Covid population. Second, the elective surgery that has been delayed for almost two years. Third, the undiagnosed urgent cases given thousands of Australians have not gone for their regular health checks. Those “sleeper” cases may mean that for some, an undiagnosed condition is now terminal.

So while we watch the daily Covid death figures in New South Wales and Victoria, I have no doubt thousands of more Aussies have died, or are now at far greater risk of dying, due to Covid. And that’s not taking into account the suicide rate as a direct result of Covid stresses.

My message to any state leader who plans on bucking against the National Plan is: expect anarchy as frustrated Aussies who have done the right thing and got the jab want their freedom back. The trigger point to freedom is 80 per cent. Stick to it.