Root problem is political hesitancy, not jab-shy folk

It looks as if renewed fear of Covid-19 has nudged many once reluctant people to embrace the idea of getting the jab. Outbreaks in NSW and Victoria have reduced vaccine hesitancy – a term sometimes misused to dignify outright anti-vax irrationality – from 33 per cent of adult Australians at the end of May to 21.5 per cent last Friday, according to a Melbourne Institute survey reported by Tom Dusevic.

In most cases, the problem has not really been a wariness about vaccines in general but brand resistance to the AstraZeneca product. Some of that was an imported legacy of European infighting. Then, some media outlets here in Australia made things worse with unbalanced coverage of the remote risk of blood clots as a side effect. And all this was compounded by a lack of clear and consistent political leadership. The story in favour of vaccination has been badly told and many people have lost the thread of the narrative, disjointed as it was.

Wednesday brought both welcome and unwelcome news: four more weeks of punishing lockdown in our most populous city of Sydney but the promise of the economic carnage to be partly offset, with Scott Morrison announcing bigger disaster payments to reach more pockets and tills. We also were given a glimmer of a long-looked-for exit strategy. The Prime Minister has promised vaccines for all who want them by Christmas, when lockdowns will “become a thing of the past”. Without wishing to channel Scrooge, it’s premature to celebrate given the track record to date of erratic messaging and bungled logistics.

After all, it’s the sudden rash of Delta variant exposure sites across congested suburbs, not effective public health rhetoric, that explains the big drop in vaccine hesitancy. It suggests Australians – at least those more open to logic – have felt they had to revise their personal cost-benefit ratio. Not long ago, many punters felt no urgency about vaccination when major cities seemed to have the virus suppressed.

It’s too early to say whether the shift in sentiment detected in the Melbourne Institute survey is enough to put us on track to herd immunity soon. High rates of vaccine hesitancy remain among the 18-44 age bracket and in Queensland. The data doesn’t tell us about the influence of differences in social class, education levels, ethnicity or religious faith. The survey sample may be representative of Australia’s population, but groups vary in their risk profile during a pandemic.

Some of the unwarranted resistance to AstraZeneca may prove difficult to undo, making it especially important to redouble efforts to win over that segment of the country that still feels more uneasy about vaccines generally than worried about Covid-19. It has always been the case that successful immunisation programs come with a side effect of complacency; the horrible diseases that used to kill children and relatives are soon forgotten, and it’s too easy to induce needless anxiety about vaccines. That’s why we need level-headed media reporting and politicians working with skill and persistence to translate public health officialese into compelling messages that motivate the populace.

Sometimes it’s up to elected leaders to take responsibility for toning down the unworldly safetyism of advice from health academics. It’s the job of our political class to make sure the convincing case for vaccination gets told in engaging ways and multiple languages to protect vulnerable social groups. We have to learn the lessons of herd immunity quickly because we have to live with Covid-19 – and with the pandemics yet to come.