Crunch time for anti-vaxxers as Covid anxiety looms

Pete Evans (right) says he’s not an anti-vaxxer ... just a supporter of “safe” vaccines. Pictures: File, Twitter

The country waits for the full extent of Sydney’s Northern Beaches cluster to become known. The timing could not be worse. Anxiety looms. Christmas travel plans now swing in the breeze.

It was pleasing to see huge crowds gather north of the Spit Bridge and patiently queue at Covid testing stations to have their sniffers poked. It was a reminder that most people do the right thing, not just for themselves but for the community at large.

There is a clear correlation between the ratbag conspiracists who believe COVID-19 is a contrived event, a “plandemic”, and the anti-vaccination movement. That particular part of the world has fallen hard at least for the second leg of the quinella.

A sizeable crowd outside Brisbane City Hall this afternoon protesting the “scamdemic”, the “dangers of 5G” and “mandatory vaccination”. pic.twitter.com/jyM0GjBWmm

— Lucy Stone (@ljstone09) May 30, 2020

In 2018, a report from NSW Health 2018 indicated the Northern Sydney Local Health District which has carriage for Northern Beaches’ suburbs and extends into Mosman, Cremorne and Killara has vaccination rates below the state average.

It is only a couple of points shy but in these wealthy areas it is no mere statistical anomaly. There are no geographical or economic restrictions on access to vaccination. Medical centres, general practitioners, and infant health centres are in abundance. What the report does reveal is that a current of the anti-vaccination movement has taken hold in these communities.

The suburbs fit the anti-vax profile — upper middle class, well educated — people who wring their hands about the environment, fret about biodiversity and mutter darkly about government. Sooner or later, some will drift into non-traditional medical treatments and it is a short trip from there to forming the cult-like belief that vaccines are a form of deep state thought control.

The rule of thumb is that parents with little or no resources vaccinate their children without fail and are grateful for the services provided by the National Immunisation Program free of charge.

Myk Simms back on the mic. He gives Canberra Raiders a shout-out (he’s from the ACT), saying he won’t get a flu shot to see his “beloved raiders” play.

— CAMERONWILSON (@cameronwilson) May 30, 2020

But the tactics of the anti-vaccination movement in Australia are changing, using social media messaging to market misinformation and peddle snake oil remedies to Australians living in regional, rural and remote areas.

Indigenous communities are especially vulnerable.

In New Zealand, the anti-vaccination movement sought to influence Maori and Islander communities with devastating consequences. Two years ago, a billboard advertisement featuring a person of Maori or Islander origin appeared on a major highway in South Auckland that read: “If you knew the ingredients in a vaccine, would you risk it?”

The sign was paid for by a group called Warnings About Vaccine Expectations, or WAVES. There is no doubt the advertising was pitched at vulnerable communities.

WAVES held public meetings, screened malicious propaganda and generally engaged in baseless hysteria.

A year later, New Zealand experienced a measles epidemic that continues to this day. The highest rates of infection and hospitalisation occurred in Auckland. Infection spread to Samoa killing 72 people. An infectious traveller from New Zealand flew to Australia and set off a chain of measles infections in Perth last year.

The major cause of the epidemic stems from an enduring and inexplicable shortage of the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine in New Zealand, leaving vaccination rates at less than that required to achieve herd immunity. How about that? Jacinda Ardern is not perfect. Who’d have thought it?

But at the same, vaccination rates have declined in New Zealand, falling by two points over the last five years. The anti-vaxxers are winning.

It should come as no surprise that the anti-vax grifters go to bed at night literally wishing that the first handful of Covid vaccine recipients will die. There is no tactic too low, no desire too disgraceful.

Patricia is suffering from an unexplained skin condition - but a misunderstanding about what might have caused it set off a chain of events that turned her foot into fodder for anti-vaccine activists.

Here’s how - more across @BBCNews TV, Radio and online today👇 pic.twitter.com/I2oQbnkNPT

— Marianna Spring (@mariannaspring) December 9, 2020

Earlier this week, a photograph of a woman in her 30s living in Texas went viral. The image revealed a large infected sore on the sole of her right foot. The picture was initially taken to raise funds for her treatment via a GoFundMe page.

The photograph was quickly snaffled by anti-vax influencers because the woman had been a participant in the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine clinical trial. The image went viral on all social media with the message alongside it, “Supposedly this is a [vaccine] trial participant. Ready to roll up your sleeve?”

Medical records revealed the woman had been receiving a placebo throughout the trial. Nothing more than saline was injected into her veins.

Australia’s loudest shill for the movement is former celebrity chef, Pete Evans. Evans claims not to be an anti-vaxxer. He says he supports “safe vaccines”. It’s just that he’s never met a vaccination he likes. His social media posts vary from helpful recipes to vague allusions to neo-Nazism and the cult of QAnon.

Pete Evans talks on social media to prominent anti-vaxxer Sherri Tenpenny about the mandating of masks. Picture: Instagram

Osteopathic doctor Sherri Tenpenny is a prominent anti-vaccination campaigner from the US. Picture: Instagram

On social media yesterday, Evans urged people in the Northern Beaches not to get a test for COVID-19.

There is an argument that every media mention — even adverse ones — provide Evans and his ilk with free publicity. A couple of years ago, I might have agreed with it.

Evans has almost 1.5 million Facebook followers. Absurdly, four weeks ago, Evans posted on Facebook saying he had deleted his Facebook page. He did so claiming he would not be subject to censorship which is odd given that anyone who posts on his page which challenges his views are quickly taken down.

Since then, Evans has posted more than 200 times.

Evans needs to be de-platformed on Facebook and quickly. He can scuttle off to other platforms like Parler and Telegraph, but these are where the people ain’t. But as yet Mark Zuckerberg’s much vaunted crackdown on the anti-vax movement has not yet extended to Pete Evans.

As COVID-19 vaccines begin to roll out across the world, the prospect of a return to a pre-Covid normal or a form of it, exists. This creates an existential crisis for the anti-vax influencers and hucksters who flog dodgy supplements. When all is said and done, consumers of this rubbish have nothing to show for it other than awfully expensive piss.

But what is really being sold is dangerous. It’s crunch time for the anti-vaccination movement. They need COVID-19 vaccines to fail. They need fear to overtake reason if they are to stay in business.