Dr Zac on what to do when your partner refuses to get vaccinated

The wife of a covid-denying anti-vaxxer has revealed the ridiculous hypocrisy of her husband who won’t get jabbed.

Welcome to Ask Doctor Zac, a weekly column from news.com.au.

Question: Hi Dr Zac, I’m married to a Covidiot. I’m embarrassed to say he nearly attended the Sydney anti-lockdown protest. He may have if it weren’t for me putting our marriage on the line if he went.

Ever since the latest lockdown, he has spiralled out of control, logging into anti-vaxxer Facebook groups, and thinking the government is out to get him.

He thinks my boobs are growing because of my Pfizer jab, and that it’s a sign the vaccine is experimental and untested. He tells me I am reckless and put my body in danger by having the vaccine, but I believe I was doing the right thing.

He always says the same thing, “The numbers show the vaccine doesn’t work.”

Can you believe back in his 20s he used to take steroids he bought from a mate at the gym and partied on the weekend taking recreational drugs? He doesn’t even blink an eyelid about it.

What’s frustrating is that he won’t listen to me and will often begin to yell at me, so I’m hoping he’ll listen to you. How can I tell him these vaccines are safe? – Anon, 32, Sydney

Vaccinating against Covid-19 is the only way for Australians to get their normal lives back, but as a nation we’re struggling.

News.com.au’s Our Best Shot campaign answers your questions about the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

It’s fair to say the vaccine rollout has confused Australians. We’ll cut through the spin and give you clear information so you can make an informed decision.

Answer: Hi there, it sounds like you are entering a tough situation in your home. If you are alone with your husband, and ever feel in danger or uncomfortable due to his behaviour – please call 1800 RESPECT. Lockdown or not, there is help for you if you need it.

Now, I liken my strategy to persuade an anti-vaxxer with guerrilla warfare. Instead of barging in like an out-of-control elephant with a whole thesis of why they are wrong, you should come at them like a tiger. A tiger will take its time, rush in with a clean swipe and duck back out to wait for the next perfect opportunity.

RELATED: Doctor sums up AstraZeneca risk perfectly

There were plenty of Covidiots at the Sydney lockdown protest. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

For instance, your husband’s misinformed Pfizer boob job side effect. Next time he brings it up, wait patiently for him to finish and then explain succinctly it’s in fact not the vaccine causing a permanent side effect but simply your body’s immune response.

As stated by news.com.au earlier in the week, when people get the jab in their upper arm, it’s normal for the lymph nodes in the armpit to be activated and swell. After several weeks, the swelling will reside, and it in fact happens when people get the shingles vaccine and even the yearly flu jab.

The hypocrisy of anti-vaxxers

My second tip is to point out hypocrisy whenever you see it. Your husband won’t have a vaccine made by doctors who spent half their life in university, but he will inject bootleg steroids into his bum he bought from his mate.

If you meet an anti-vaxxer, ask them if they have ever taken illegal recreational drugs. Those are experimental drugs made in a makeshift lab, which I’m sure they didn’t bat an eyelid before taking. It’s so hypocritical to inflate the danger of one thing, but never take into account the danger of everything else.

RELATED: ‘Valid’ reason people don’t want jab

Anti-vaxxers often don’t take into account the danger of everyday things and merely inflate the risk of vaccines.

In 2019, there were 1865 drug-induced deaths in Australia – that’s a rate of 7.4 per 100,000 population. That’s seven times the risk of getting a blood clot from AstraZeneca vaccine, yet I’m sure he and his mates aren’t attending protest marches to bring that death rate down.

Now, the Covid vaccines are not experimental. They are tried and tested and got the tick of approval from the TGA. Every batch of vaccines that enter our country are checked to make sure they meet the same quality standards.

Vaccines do work

You also need to sit your husband down and provide him some perspective.

As mentioned in my previous column, while 1 in 100,000 could have blood clotting from the AstraZeneca vaccine, in comparison 1 in 10,000 could have blood clotting from the contraceptive pill. Furthermore, 1 in 20,000 die from taking Viagra, 1 in 8248 die from sunstroke, 1 in 543 die from a pedestrian accident and 1 in 138,849 die from a lightning strike.

Two famous vaccines that saved millions of lives were the measles and polio vaccines. Imagine a world without them – our populations would be suffering. If only we had a time-machine to take your husband back to the prime of the polio vaccine and ask him if he’d prefer the iron lung or a lifesaving vaccine.

Efficacy vs effectiveness

I’ve been reading a lot lately from anti-vaxxers on Facebook saying the same things as your husband. “The vaccines don’t work, look at the real numbers compared to what they tell us in the news.”

Many anti-vaxxers conflate efficacy with effectiveness – mainly because they don’t understand the difference. Efficacy refers to how a vaccine performs under ideal lab conditions, such as those in a clinical trial. This is where we hear the Pfizer jab has 90 per cent efficacy, meaning there were 90 per cent fewer cases of the studied disease in the group receiving the vaccine compared with the placebo group.

Effectiveness refers to how the vaccine performs in the real world. So, while a vaccine can prevent disease in a trial, we might see effectiveness drop when administered to the wider population. This is not in itself a bad thing. Vaccines do not need to have high effectiveness to save thousands of lives and prevent millions of disease cases.

Dr Zac Turner explains how the Covid vaccines will work.

The flu jab has an effectiveness of 40-60 per cent, however during 2018-2019, it prevented four million influenza illnesses, 58,000 influenza-associated hospitalisations and 3500 influenza-associated deaths.

Even if you are vaccinated, you may still catch Covid, but your illness will be far less severe.

Long-term impact of Covid

Another danger is the long-term effects caused by the novel disease.

One in three survivors of Covid-19 are now commonly referred to as ‘long-haulers’ where they suffer from neurological or psychiatric disability months after infection. Symptoms include memory loss, nerve disorders, anxiety, depression and insomnia. The important factor to point out is that the symptoms can occur in all age groups and in patients who were asymptomatic, isolating at home or hospitalised.

Being vaccinated is the best way to make sure you won’t become a long-hauler.

Thanks for your question, and I hope you can convince your husband to listen to science. And remember, crouch like a tiger!

Dr Zac Turner has a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Sydney. He is both a medical practitioner and a co-owner of telehealth service, Concierge Doctors and is also a qualified and experienced biomedical scientist, past Registered Nurse and currently a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering. | @drzacturner