Andrew Bolt: Australians must stop relying on government to save them from Covid

Australians must take responsibility for their own health and stop relying on the government to save them from Covid.

No, these lockdowns won’t end with vaccinations.

They’ll end only when Australians grow up and take responsibility for their own health — and death.

Right now many Australians seem happy to hand their freedom to Big Government, to be returned when our politicians hit some magic target.

And so Prime Minister Scott Morrison was praised last week for promising we’d be finally free from the threat of lockdowns when he got 80 per cent of adults vaccinated.

Like maybe next year.

Morrison stressed that this target, agreed with the Premiers, was set by scientists.

Ah, science! Except this isn’t really about science but values.

Take Britain. It opened up weeks ago, including to vaccinated tourists, and now has “only” 100 or so deaths each day.

But that rate — adjusting for population — is the equivalent of 40 deaths a day in Australia.

Do you think for a second that our Premiers, in their frame of mind today, would accept 40 deaths a day, without slamming their cities into more lockdowns?

Melbourne hasn’t had a death all year, but is still shut down for yet another week at least. Britons seem to think that death rate is worth it for their freedom to move and work.

Terrified Australians right now do not. Or so it seems.

But Britain has that many deaths even after fully vaccinating 74 per cent of adults.

It probably has an even higher rate of immunity, given nine per cent of people there have recovered from past infections.

Australians must take responsibility for their own health— and death— during the pandemic. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images.

In contrast, we have 22 per cent of adults fully vaccinated, and just 0.15 per cent of Australians with immunity from past infections. Compared to Britain, we’re a sitting duck for a huge wave of infections if we open right up.

That means it’s critical to get more people vaccinated, because the scoreboard does not lie. Not one of the 23 people killed in this latest Sydney outbreak was fully vaccinated. Not one of the 58 people now in intensive care there was fully vaccinated. In fact, 54 hadn’t even had their first shot.

Clearly, vaccines save lives, but, as Britain shows us, they’re not perfect protection. Nor are seatbelts.

Vaccines cut our risk of getting sick by two thirds, and our risk of dying by around 90 per cent, but that still means some of us will die even if we hit the Prime Minister’s target.

More will probably die than our lockdown Premiers right now could accept.

So what’s the way out?

It’s to become more adult. To take responsibility.

Check the six people who died last weekend in the NSW outbreak. All were older than 60, and four in their 80s – an age where the chance of dying if you get infected is about one in four.

All should have been vaccinated and could have been. There’s been plenty of vaccine for months for the old.

Sure, one of the dead had been told not to get vaccinated because of his other conditions; others chose not to be for reasons unknown.

One reason was almost certainly the insane fear campaign run against vaccines, which has left us with three million doses of AstraZeneca that many people now refuse to take.

Is that who we’re now trying to protect with lockdowns on us all?

This must change. By Christmas at the latest, the chief responsibility of saving people from dying must switch from the government to individuals.

Lockdowns won’t end with vaccinations, writes Andrew Bolt. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui.

By then we should have got enough vaccines for every adult who wants them, and certainly for everyone most at risk of dying – the old and weakened.

Indeed, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday he already had “plenty” of AstraZeneca for those wanting it.

So by Christmas we should agree it’s no longer the Government’s responsibility if people die when we open up. If the dead then weren’t vaccinated, it’s on them.

Yes, some people will still be unvaccinated because of other medical conditions. We must help them to protect themselves.

Others will still think the vaccines are too dangerous, and may still demand lockdowns to keep safe. But, again, we must put the onus on them, not our politicians.

You still want lockdowns? Then lock down yourself. Stay home, with your cupboards full of tinned food and toilet paper.

When we are ready to be adults again, and free, lockdowns will end. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images.

But the rest of us are going outside. We accept the risk of dying. We absolve our leaders of blame for the inevitable deaths that come.

It’s only when we’re ready to be adult again, and free, will the lockdowns end.