Lucy Carne: Forget vaccine hesitancy, it’s vaccine laziness we should worry about

The enraging reality of the latest lockdown is that the nation’s freedom is beholden to lazy vaccine procrastination. If we are to remain the Lucky Country, we need to change our attitude, writes Lucy Carne.

New York is celebrating with fireworks.

To mark the incredible accomplishment of 70 per cent of adults vaccinated and consequent lifting of restrictions, the skyline exploded with joy and relief last week.

“What felt years away has been accomplished in less than one,” governor Andrew Cuomo said, honouring the 53,000 New Yorkers who died from the virus.

But as the rest of the world reopens, our biggest city (and a huge chunk of NSW) has shut down.

People watch the fireworks in front of the Statue of Liberty to mark New York state reaching a 70 per cent vaccination rate. Picture: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Sydney has plunged into lockdown with 82 locally acquired Covid cases courtesy of the highly contagious Delta strain that can infect in seconds.

There are legitimate fears that clusters of undetected Delta cases have jumped interstate.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said yesterday it was impossible to determine how many people had come into the state from NSW in the past two weeks.

More than 87,000 border passes were processed from NSW residents crossing the border, but it’s not known how many Queenslanders returned from infected hot spots.

“We could have any case in Queensland any day. I’m very worried,” Dr Young said.

Blame for the latest outbreak has landed in the lap of an unvaccinated limo driver who picked up airline staff from Sydney’s international airport.

A virtually empty Sydney CBD during the latest Covid-19 lockdown. Picture: Damian Shaw

The 60-year-old driver claimed he had not had the recommended AstraZeneca vaccine because he’d decided with his GP to wait for Pfizer.

The fact that it’s not legally mandatory – just recommended – for frontline workers to be vaccinated, should be condemned.

But the enraging reality of this situation is that the freedom of our nation is beholden to the selfish and downright lazy decisions of individuals.

Rather than wait until August for Pfizer, the limo driver could have got his jab at the old Qantas seamless transfer facility where vaccines were on offer for frontline staff.

But no, he put his faith in a mask and hand sanitiser and went about handling luggage and ferrying passengers (and Covid) around the city.

“I’m as upset as anybody and frustrated as much as anybody,” NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said, stating the obvious.

Yet, here we are, suffering yet again because our system relies on unreliable human behaviour.

Mark Kilian was granted compassionate permission to visit his dying father in Queensland. Picture: Supplied

The vaccine is supposed to be our great hope but has even greater obstacles blocking its path.

Sure, the government’s vaccine ‘strollout’ (as it’s been dubbed) has been a hopeless debacle of tardiness.

A vaccinated community won’t stop Covid spreading, but it will prevent our hospitals from being burdened with seriously ill and dying people.

Unless we wake up to the toll of Covid-19 and our vaccine uptake lifts, it won’t be long before compassionate gestures, such as allowing US arrival Mark Kilian to reunite with his dying father last week, will be impossible.

Among the 53,000 New Yorkers who tragically died was my former colleague and the New York Post’s beloved sports photographer Anthony Causi, a 48-year-old father of two young kids.

New York Post photographer Anthony Causi died from Covid-19. Picture: Twitter @Acausi

He spent his final days in ICU alone as his distraught wife begged on Facebook for anyone who someone at the hospital to visit his room, hold his hand, talk to him or pray with him.

“He needs someone to help him and we’re not there,” she wrote.

Within hours, a stranger replied: “I just left his room. I held his hand. I told him his family loves him so much. I said a Hail Mary and the Our Father.”

Anthony died a few days later. That is the heartbreaking reality of Covid.

A higher vaccine uptake is the only way we can return to a normal life in a post-pandemic world.

But to achieve that, we’re at the mercy of our “she’ll be right, mate” attitude.

Australia’s laid-back vibe, once one of our greatest assets, has become a curse.

“Next week”; “I can’t spare a day off ”; “the vaccine hub closes before I finish work”; and “I’ll wait and see,” are the vaccine negligents’ common excuses.

These are not the lunatic fringe of anti-vaxxers or the vaccine hesitant overblowing clot risks. They are just vaccine lazy.

They are the more than 10,000 Queenslanders who haven’t bothered to get their second Pfizer shot, rendering their first jab redundant.

They are the ones who have mythologised the pandemic as a distant memory, laughing at how “we used to wash our shopping bags”.

But Covid is still here and it’s spreading. More people globally have been infected with Covid in the past six months than in all of 2020.

Until we take the risks of this virus and our vaccine responsibility seriously, our fireworks celebration is a long way off.

Originally published as Lucy Carne: Forget vaccine hesitancy, it’s vaccine laziness we should worry about