It’s the last stand for anti-vaxxers

Anti-vaxxers protest against Corona-19 vaccinations at Fawkner Park in Melbourne. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It’s difficult to climb into the tiny minds of anti-vaxxers. But it is worth the effort to try, to get some appreciation of their desperation.

Time is running out on the delusional movement that already has done so much damage both here and overseas.

We know the first stages of the vaccine roll out went poorly this week with overdoses administered to two elderly residents of an aged care centre in Queensland. Health Minister, Greg Hunt was right to throw the book at the untrained doctor and the company charged with distributing the vaccine.

Mistakes, basic human errors like this play into the hands of the anti-vaccination movement in Australia. And the anti-vaxxers will fight like hell to retain some sense of legitimacy, some community appeal because they know facts, science and knowledge are catching up with them.

Make no mistake, the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccines is their last stand.

Anti-vaxxers have entered the electoral race before but we are about to see that ratcheted up.

The Informed Medical Options Party (IMOP) previously known as Involuntary Medical Objectors (Vaccination/Fluoridation) Party have been fielding candidates in state and federal elections since 2016 for very little return. The name change is an obvious tactic to play down some of their fruitier ideas. The party hails from Northern Rivers NSW, a hotbed of anti-vax hippiedom.

The Great Australian Party isn’t an anti-vax party per se. Founded by former One Nation senator Rod Culleton and Wayne Glew, the party is the political arm of Australia’s sovereign citizen movement, rag-tag collection of ratbags who believe Australia is an illegal corporate entity and the real Constitution has been kept from the Australian people (you can get a copy of it online from Glew for a modest fee).

Last week the GAP announced Pete Evans as their NSW candidate for the Senate at the next federal election. More on him later.

The No Mandatory Vaccine Party is running candidates in all lower house seats in Western Australia’s state election on March 13.

An anti-vaxxer protester clashes with police in Melbourne. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The party’s name reveals their utter stupidity, not to mention their ongoing struggle with reality. Vaccination for Covid-19 or indeed any vaccination to reduce the instances of serious preventable disease is not mandatory in Australia. Not now. Not ever.

Anti-vaxxers hate facts. They hate hard data. So, let’s throw a bit out there.

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data last Friday. The headline figure is that severe reactions, described as anaphylaxis, occurred at a rate of 4.5 people per million. With 22 million having received the Covid-19 vaccination in the US that is less than 100 people. Indeed, the CDC says those who have a history of anaphylaxis should still be vaccinated but must inform doctors beforehand so that they can be monitored for a short period after receiving the jab.

The data also confirmed that side effects from the vaccine were as expected. Symptoms most often reported include headache (22.4 percent), dizziness (16.5 percent) and fatigue (16.5 percent).

This data is in line with expectations and reflects the results of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in clinical trials. They also sit around the same rate as side effects from the standard flu vaccine.

What is different is that people in older age groups are less likely to experience side effects. While the coronavirus vaccines have been shown to be just as effective in older adults, people aged 50 and older experience fewer side effects than their younger counterparts.

Only about 25 percent of people aged 50 to 64 and four percent of those aged 65 to 74 who received the vaccine between December 14 and January 13 experienced side effects, according to CDC data. Meanwhile, 65 percent of those under the age of 50 reported a mild adverse reaction.

Obviously, vaccines in Australia are a mix of the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNtech vaccines with that set to change over time as new vaccines clear clinical trial hurdles.

Even anti-vaxxer sites have been forced to report mild reactions to the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca vaccine at a rate of one per 333 vaccinations administered in the UK.

But then they go on to claim that the UK government has not released data which might, just might, link the vaccine to infertility. Or blindness. Or to some frightening debilitating condition.

Anti-vaxxers lie openly, wantonly. The current nonsense is predicated on the fantasy the vaccine can distort or destroy DNA.

Anti-vaxxers don’t just hate the truth, they hate science. Getting a headache after receiving the jab is nowhere near scary enough. They have to peddle apocalyptic science fiction because it’s the only thing they and their groupies understand.

They are so brazen that they will publish data completely unrelated to the vaccine. One site based in the UK published clinical data on instances of syphilis, neatly cut off the data heading and applied it to the vaccine.

Last week, the Millions March against mandatory vaccination turned out to be the hundreds march. Those hundreds are the chronically deluded who think heading out on a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon with placards they’ve knocked up in their living rooms is a great way to spend a day. Even sillier, they were jumping up and down angrily over something that isn’t happening and won’t ever happen.

In Hyde Park in Sydney last Saturday, the anti-vaxxers praised weather gods various claiming rain had been predicted for Sydney that afternoon (it hadn’t) so when it turned out to be fine and sunny (as predicted by actual scientists), they declared right was on their side.

The poorly attended rally featured the leader of IMOP dressed head to toe in IMOP merch (always the dollars, always the grift) and none other than Pete Evans who made his debut as a candidate for the Great Australian Party, clambering onto the dais barefoot.

Evans’ oratory was insipid. Martin Luther King he ain’t, I know, and maybe I was wrong to expect more from a man who gave us such telling insights on My Kitchen Rules as, “I could eat this all day” and “Yum.”

Pete Evans at an anti-vaccination rally at Sydney’s Hyde Park on February 20. Picture: Getty Images

He said he would always tell the truth, or his version of it. According to Paleo Pete, there is no such thing as empirical fact. Two plus two equals four. Well, not if you’re Pete Evans. Two plus two equals the price of whatever wellness goodies he’s trying to flog which invariably is a lot more than four.

Rather, Pete says, everyone has their own version of the truth, and if so, we now know his truth is banal and mumbled soullessly.

He went on to say that he’d been invited to join the Senate as if senators find their way onto the plush red seats after receiving an embossed card in the mail. The difference between candidacy for a minor party, in this case one established by sovereign citizens and actually winning enough votes to be elected (about 15 per cent of first preferences, Pete, in case you’re wondering) seems to have eluded him.

Oddly, he went on to say he doesn’t have any answers.

It was an intriguing political pitch. I have no answers and I’m not wearing shoes. Please elect me.

A health worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Picture: AFP

The biggest cheer he got even from that motley group of deluded hand-wringers was when he stopped speaking.

We should mock anti-vaxxers and I always will. But let’s not underestimate their power to spread misinformation in a time of uncertainty where disseminating fear is likely to have a significant impact on the broad community. We should be mindful, too, at the ballot box where these parties often packaged as something else, are desperate for votes.

To be certain everything is on the line for anti-vaxxers. If the Covid vaccines are rolled out in Australia smoothly with little fuss, few severe adverse reactions and, most importantly, the vaccinations lead to a return to pre-pandemic normal, their game is up.

In the meantime, anti-vaxxers will tell any lie, spread any piece of misinformation, and try to summon any terrible fear.