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Jack the Insider

Behold the biggest of the anti-vaxxer lies

Jack the Insider
Excerpts from the bogus letters anti-vaxxers are delivering as part of their deceitful campaign. Pictures: Supplied
Excerpts from the bogus letters anti-vaxxers are delivering as part of their deceitful campaign. Pictures: Supplied

Who’d have thought that helpful, pleasant 18-year-old girl who works weekends at the chemist shop has been up to a bit of treason?

Well, your common or garden anti-vaxxer does.

Anti-vaxxers are obsessed with treason. Sedition, mutiny, treachery, subversion. Conspiracy to commit treason. Treasonable conspiracy. Anyone who doesn’t agree with them is guilty of all of the above and maybe more but especially treason.

As stated previously, an anti-vaxxer is not someone who is vaccine hesitant, nor indeed anyone who cannot or chooses not to receive a vaccination. The best working definition of an anti-vaxxer is someone who, by fair means or foul, seeks to persuade other people not to get vaccinated.

If it was a simple matter of anti-vaxxers making their own choices we’d accept them. But it’s not just that they decline to get vaccinated. They don’t want you to get vaccinated, they don’t want me to get vaccinated and they want the national roll out of Covid-19 vaccinations to stop. Or should I say cease and desist.

The latest tactic from rabid anti-vaxxers is to serve phony cease and desist notices on people going quietly about their business. Pharmacists, doctors, nurses, clinic managers, medical receptionists, retail staff, schoolteachers, police, even our soldiers have been served with cease and desist notices labelling them treasonous and hinting darkly at capital punishment.

Hand delivered bogus legal threats

If their own figures are to be believed (and they aren’t), anti-vaxxers have “served” bogus cease and desist notices on almost 4000 pharmacies, 2500 police stations and military facilities, 3000 schools and 10000 doctors, hospitals and medical centres across the country.

In my little part of the world all three pharmacies in town have received these notices, hand delivered. At least one has referred the notice and the server to police along with a formal complaint. At this stage, police will only say they will follow up complaints when they are made.

In NSW for example, it is an offence to produce a document to another person that purports to comply with the laws of the state knowing that it is false or misleading. The offence comes with a maximum two-year jail term.

Threats and lies: an anti-vaxxer 'cease and desist' letter. Picture: Supplied
Threats and lies: an anti-vaxxer 'cease and desist' letter. Picture: Supplied
Letters have been circulated across Australia, the anti-vaxxers claim. Picture: Supplied
Letters have been circulated across Australia, the anti-vaxxers claim. Picture: Supplied

These sham notices come in different forms but the most common I have come across begins dripping in sovereign citizen faux law, “We, the People/Men and Women of Australia order you to cease and desist the use of experimental vaccines as they constitute Crimes against Humanity under Natural law, Common law, Treaty law, Articles 6 and 7 of the Criminal Court Statute, the Nuremberg Code, the Geneva Convention, the United Nations Convention, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Magna Carta, and the Australian Constitution.”

Natural law? What, a cheetah is faster while a giraffe is taller, and a bear and a lion are evenly matched, so it really comes down to who wants it more on the day?

Anti-vaxxers claim they’ve delivered the sham notices across Australia. Image: Supplied
Anti-vaxxers claim they’ve delivered the sham notices across Australia. Image: Supplied

No, they don’t mean that natural law but the natural law they refer to is a philosophical concept which has no legal bearing. Then they cite Common law (where exactly?), Treaty law (what treaty?), Articles 6 and 7 of the Criminal Court Statute (doesn’t exist), the Nuremberg Code (not binding or relevant in Australian law), the Geneva Convention (watched too many episodes of Hogan’s Heroes), the United Nations Convention (wasn’t that in Vegas?), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (not binding or relevant), the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights (not binding or relevant), the Magna Carta (annulled by Pope Innocent III in 1215) and the Australian Constitution (it’s the vibe).

This faux legal nonsense would be laughable, but it is designed to bully, intimidate and harass. That 18-year-old girl who runs the register at the chemist shop and helps customers find the Panadol on the shelf in aisle four, should be able to feel safe at her workplace without some deranged idiot accusing her of a crime for which the current penalty is life imprisonment.

Covid patients video hijacked

Last week, I spoke with Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Concord Clinical School, Lucy Morgan. It was Lucy who had filmed the powerful footage of Covid patients in ICU at Concord Hospital. The patients had volunteered to tell their stories and to urge people to get vaccinated.

Lucy shot the footage on her iPhone. It ran across all media around the country. Naturally she was frustrated and disappointed to learn that anti-vaxxers had hijacked the video, claiming the patients were crisis actors. That anti-vaxxer lie was rumbled within hours. I told Lucy that the more compelling the message, the bigger the lie in response should be expected from anti-vaxxers.

“My body, my choice” was a slogan adopted by women fighting for reproductive rights. That too, has been commandeered by anti-vaxxer activists. It’s an anti-vaxxer hashtag now, a T-shirt, a chant, a mantra, a call to arms. But most of all, it’s a lie. And it’s the biggest lie anti-vaxxers tell. We shouldn’t be surprised because anti-vaxxers lie. All. The. Time.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/behold-the-biggest-of-the-antivaxxer-lies/news-story/5a7a8dfceb2b8da18b6fbade22b22801