Compulsory Vaccinations
Members of the wider community are discussing the need for workers and customers of various business to be double vaccinated, some discussions are more confronting than others with street protests and individuals behaving very badly.
Our Society is founded on the need for some individual restrictions for the safety of all. Workers at a construction site are required to wear fluoro vests, hard hats and steel-toed boots and wear long sleeve shirts. They are also required not to drink alcohol, take drugs or smoke in work areas. These restrictions are for the safety of all. Workers who work with children are required to have a “Working with Children Check” by Police for the safety of the children. Nurses and doctors working in hospitals and operating theatres are required to scrub up, wear fresh garments each day and wear appropriate personal protection equipment.
When we drive a vehicle on a public road we are required to wear a seat-belt, have passed a licence test, to not drink alcohol or drugs (ie under the influence of these) and obey the speed limit. Drivers also are restricted to designated parking spaces (you can’t park in the middle of a freeway) or drive through a shopping mall.
There are a myriad of examples where individual restrictions occur in society and we generally do not abuse these as they are always for the safety of the individual and those around us.
Science has shown over 200 years that vaccinations are effective against many, many diseases. The Covid pandemic has shown the safety of covid vaccinations in that almost 5 billion people have been vaccinated and relatively few have had major problems.
Those ending up in ICUs around the world are generally those who are now unvaccinated or those who have serious underlying medical conditions or are of an older age. If more people were vaccinated then even those with such co-morbidities, would be less likely to contract the disease.
Having a vaccination once or twice a year is far less onerous than having to gear-up every day to work on a construction site.
Yes, people in this society do have freedom of choice. If you choose not to get a driver’s licence then you can’t drive a vehicle; if you choose not to wear protective clothing on a construction site then you have made the choice to not work there. If you choose not to be vaccinated for whatever reason, then you choose not to work with me, not to attend the football with me, not eat with me in a restaurant and not travel on public transport with me.
Every choice we make in life has consequences. Make the choice and live with the consequences. As Jacquie Lambie, the Senator from Tasmania said, “Be a bloody adult!”
QANON, Reignite Democracy & Vaccination Refusers
People who follow these pervaders of fruitcake misinformation, conspiracy theories, blatant lies and non-scientific nonsense have certainly come out in force since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There have always been those who shrilly express their non-scientific views regarding the efficacy of vaccines when the evidence is quite clear: people do not generally die from vaccines; and, vaccines have long saved the population from the devastating effects of polio, whooping cough, measles, chicken-pox, mumps, diphtheria, shingles and influenza.
Yes, there are some very rare side effects of some vaccines that lead to nasty outcomes, but these are very rare and the odds of getting them is far, far less than the odds of getting the disease and suffering severe outcomes. And in a pandemic, this is even more necessary to be vaccinated.
Parliamentarian, Craig Kelly and celebrity cook, Pete Evans are but two of these pervaders of misinformation and fortunately, FaceBook has chosen to remove their misinformation and lies.
Here are some of the latest reports regarding these pervaders of doom:
News Corp named the top 10 misinformation superspreaders about Covid vaccines on Facebook in Australia;
Disinformation is everywhere online, some of it is hard to even detect, here’s the expert guide to recognising the gateways to QAnon and conspiracy land.
Launching my new website
Armidale to lock down
Armidale in regional NSW will go into lockdown from 5pm on Saturday, August 7 2021 after two Covid-19 cases were detected in the area.
NSW Covid-19 Public Health Response Branch executive director Jeremy McAnulty said the cases were a woman who recently travelled to Newcastle and one of her household contacts.
The Armidale Local Government Area will go into lockdown for one week with the same rules as Sydney and Newcastle, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed.
Mr Hazzard said the woman who travelled from Newcastle to Covid-free Armidale had “possibly” broken the rules with investigations ongoing.
Authorities are also concerned about another regional area, with sewage detections of Covid-19 in Dubbo.
Dr McNulty said there were no known cases in Dubbo and urged residents to get tested.
Tamworth to lock down
Tamworth has become the second Northern NSW city to go into lock down due to COVID-19.
NSW Health has confirmed a young woman travelled to Tamworth from Newcastle last Thursday, August 5.
She visited a number of businesses before returning to the Hunter.
New South Wales chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the young woman did not know that she was positive while travelling and the Hunter had not been in lockdown when she began her trip.
“She is now back in Newcastle and is isolating,” Dr Chant said.
People in Tamworth turned out in droves this morning to get tested and, by 9am, police were forced to turn people away to prevent the line encroaching on arterial roads.
Tamworth Mayor Col Murray praised the community’s response.
“How can we be surprised that the good people of Tamworth responded so positively?” he asked.
“But we ask that you understand there will be some delays, there are large numbers of people responding to this lockdown, there will be delays while you are queueing to get tested.”
A new testing clinic at the Australian Equine and Livestock Exhibition Centre will open from midday today.
Both the Riverside and AELEC testing clinics will now operate from 8am to 5pm, seven days a week.
Byron Bay, NSW North Coast LGAs enter seven-day lockdown
Byron Bay and surrounding LGAs have entered a seven-day lockdown from amid fears COVID-19 may be circulating in the regional areas.
The stay-at-home orders come after a man in his 50s – who travelled from locked down Sydney to Byron Bay – tested positive to COVID-19.
The NSW Government on Monday afternoon confirmed the LGAs of Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina would enter lockdown until 12.01am Tuesday, August 17.
The restrictions for the areas are the same as those already in place across Greater Sydney, as well as Tamworth, Armidale, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie. Maitland, Port Stephens, Singleton, Dungog, Muswellbrook and Cessnock.
“Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse to leave,” the NSW Government statement read.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said officials did not have any information from the infected man’s QR check-ins, which are compulsory when visiting venues.