Toowoomba disability advocate urges unvaccinated to get jabbed to protect vulnerable people

With borders set to re-open soon, a Toowoomba mother and disability advocate is facing a terrifying choice over the Covid-19 vaccine — and she has a message for those who still aren’t jabbed.

SCARED: Toowoomba disability advocate Alyce Nelligan, pictured with daughter Alessandra, has found herself in the "worst case scenario" of needing to get the Pfizer vaccine despite having a compromised immune system, due to the lack of take-up by the general public and shifting political rhetoric.

Alyce Nelligan is preparing to get her first Pfizer jab despite having a compromised immune system.

The Toowoomba disability advocate and mother-of-three knows the alternative is much worse.

“This is the worst-case scenario – I’ve spent a year trying to not get Covid, and now I have to accept it’s coming,” she said.

“I am very scared because I know I can be treated for a reaction, but with Covid it could kill me.”

With Queensland’s 80 per cent vaccination target in sight, Ms Nelligan has urged eligible and healthy residents to get vaccinated to further prevent harm to the immunocompromised when the borders re-open.

She said it could be the difference between life and death for many people.

Ms Nelligan, who has a rare condition called minicore myopathy and is in a wheelchair, said she had held off getting the vaccine due to her previous reactions to other jabs that had landed her in hospital at times.

But she said the lackadaisical take-up of vaccinations in Queensland and shifting political rhetoric towards opening up borders soon meant she needed to try and protect herself.

As of October 11, just 52.7 per cent of eligible Queenslanders are fully covered, while nearly 54 per cent have had both shots in the Toowoomba region.

“For that herd immunity, you need 90-95 per cent vaccination rates before opening up,” Ms Nelligan said.

“Now with the agenda moving to completely opening up before Christmas, that means a lot of vulnerable communities, like disabled, remote and Indigenous, will be left exposed.

“I have become very sick before with certain vaccines, so they’re not sure why my body does that.”

Having enjoyed relative freedoms for several months thanks to the State Government’s “Covid-zero” goal, Ms Nelligan said her choices would be either getting jabbed or shutting herself off from the world again.

She said residents needed to understand becoming fully vaccinated wasn’t just for their sakes.

“If you’re healthy and able, please get the vaccine,” Ms Nelligan said.

“Think about your community, the elderly, the disabled, people who haven’t been able to get it, so our regions are as safe as possible going forward.

“It’s so apparent that our lives don’t matter (to some) – that our lives are the price to pay for freedom.”

To book your jab, head online to vaccinebookings.health.qld.gov.au.