Calls to roll up sleeves intensify, as unvaccinated fill hospitals in anti-vax heartland

NSW’s unvaccinated have copped a stern warning after it was revealed no Lismore hospital intensive care unit patient was immunised.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has spoken sternly to the unvaxxed. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has issued a stern warning to those who choose to remain unvaccinated against Covid-19, after it was revealed that every patient in the Lismore hospital intensive care unit had not received the jab.

Mr Perrottet said half of all ICU admissions across the state were unvaccinated, though at the Lismore Base Hospital in NSW’s Northern Rivers area – in the state’s anti-vax heartland – all six seriously ill patients were unvaccinated.

One of those is Mullumbimby-based tarot card reader Helen Dean, who refers to herself on her social media accounts as a “super healer” and has been outspoken against vaccination. Ms Dean has reportedly spent three weeks on a ventilator fighting for life.

The region, which includes iconic holiday destination Byron Bay, has become a hotbed of vaccine scepticism, and has a full vaccination rate of about 86 per cent, compared to the national rate of 95 per cent, according to the latest federal government data.

Anti-vaxxers protest in Sydney. They’re also packing the ICU at Lismore Base Hospital. s Picture: David Swift

Unvaccinated people make up just 6 per cent of the population, but are 12 times more likely to require treatment in intensive care, The Weekend Australian revealed last week. Only 0.2 per cent of vaccinated people who caught the virus had to be admitted to ICU, compared with 2.5 per cent of unvaccinated people.

Mr Perrottet said higher rates of serious illness and death in unvaccinated people was a “global phenomenon”, echoing the words of chief medical officer Paul Kelly, who on Saturday described vaccine resistance as causing an “epidemic of the unvaccinated in young people”.

“We’re in a much better position here in Australia, particularly in NSW, with our strong vaccination rate and strong health system, but you’ve got 95 per cent of the population of NSW having been vaccinated, yet 50 per cent of people who were in ICU (were unvaccinated),” Professor Kelly said. “You heard the anecdote from the Health Minister in relation to Lismore where we have six people in ICU; every single one of them was unvaccinated. It sends a very clear (message) that vaccination is key.”

Mr Perrottet thanked NSW residents for their high uptake of booster shots, with 47 per cent of the population having had their vital third jab.