Covid vaccine mandates are wrong, but so are the anti-vaxxers

Protesters face off with police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne last Wednesday. Picture: David Crosling

The battle against mandatory vaccination reached fever pitch in Melbourne last week as blue-collar workers revolted against Victoria’s Labor government and union heavyweights. Workers dissenting from state-mandated Covid-19 vaccines in the construction sector marched through the city on Monday in an act of defiance that led to week-long protests.

Much of the mainstream media echoed the Labor line on the marches, namely that democratic protests are undemocratic, workers who revolt against socialist Labor are fascists, health officials are omniscient, state decree is infallible, dissent is ugly, and public debate is a threat to social cohesion rather than the basis of enduring peace.

There is good reason to defend citizens protesting a state that wants to inject them with a foreign substance against their will and corporations that seek to deny vaccine refuseniks a living wage. And yet, on the balance of research and scientific evidence, the refuseniks are plainly wrong.

There is enough scientific research to answer the question of whether Covid vaccine benefits outweigh risks in the affirmative. Having read through many complaints by people who mistrust the science on Covid vaccines, it is clear the science or research methodology is too complex to allay public fears about the vaccines. I am not convinced people who object to taking the vaccine have understood the research well enough to substantiate their main complaints. In part, the problem lies with limited public access to academic journals and the lack of publicly available disaggregated data on Covid cases.

However, I do not agree states should be in the business of forcing people to submit to injections they do not want unless there is an immediate threat to life. There are alternatives to such a coercive medical approach that focus on individual choice and personal responsibility for consequences.

The first course of action is to consider the main complaints of people who continue to protest against the idea of vaccinations. Beyond the tension between individual freedom, bodily autonomy and state control, there are common community concerns about the relative risks and benefits of Covid vaccines.

Initial public hesitancy was fuelled by the largely false distinction between the safety of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. Now that the public can exercise brand choice, the percentage of people who are unvaccinated and intend to remain so has fallen to somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent. The 10 percenters have turned their attention to prosecuting a case against vaccination around three broad points. They contend that as vaccinated people are still becoming sick from Covid and being admitted to hospital, the vaccine is not an effective prophylactic. They argue that given vaccinated people still transmit Covid, mass vaccination is not a truly effective public health measure. Consequently, they contend that the policy of preferential treatment for vaccinated citizens is not justifiable.

A year ago, such arguments could be entertained because Covid vaccines and research were in their infancy. Now, there is more and better analysis available. While not perfect, it suggests the case for getting vaccinated as a personal and public health measure is sound.

The White House Covid-19 Response Team warned Americans in July the Delta variant was more aggressive and transmissible than previous variants. The team found 99 per cent of Covid deaths were occurring among unvaccinated cohorts. The Centres for Disease Control reported 97 per cent of hospitalised Covid cases were unvaccinated people.

In the US, ABC News also researched the difference between rates of unvaccinated and vaccinated people in ICU. The media outlet contacted 50 hospitals in 17 states. Of 271 Covid patients in ICUs, 94 per cent were unvaccinated. Fifteen of the 16 vaccinated patients in intensive care had serious pre-existing health conditions. However, the rate of comorbidities among the unvaccinated group was not stated.

In an August update, the CDC cited preliminary research by Chia, et al, showing unvaccinated people experienced more symptoms from Covid infection than vaccinated cohorts, including fever (73.9 per cent to 40.9 per cent), cough (60.8 per cent to 38 per cent and shortness of breath (13.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent). The paper, Virological and serological kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant vaccine-breakthrough infections: a multi-centre cohort study, is yet to be peer-reviewed, but the research indicated viral load declines faster among vaccinated than unvaccinated people.

Closer to home, the Royal Australia College of General Practitioners has warned the vast majority of cases admitted to ICUs in NSW are unvaccinated. Consistent with international research, people who have received a full course of Covid vaccination are less likely to become seriously ill and end up in intensive care.

International medical research on the Covid pandemic underscores the importance of being vaccinated before national and international borders open.

There has been a degree of public sympathy for people resisting Covid vaccines. However, the mood is becoming more febrile as ICU wards fill with the unvaccinated. Australians are losing patience with people who refuse the Covid vaccine and then expect first-class treatment in taxpayer-funded ICUs brimming with vaccine refuseniks. For the people I know who insist they have a right to refuse the Covid vaccine, I agree in principle. But I do not want good people to die from pride in a foolish cause.