Like just about every aspect of living, even sleeping, vaccination comes with risk.
In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, the estimated risk of serious side-effects, including death, ranges from seven in a million (the Mayo Clinic in the US) to one in 100,000 (Australian Academy of Science). In statistical terms, a one-in-a-million chance of negative consequences of an action, including death, is expressed as a “micromort”. So the Mayo estimates that Covid vaccines expose you to seven micromorts and the Australian Academy estimates 10.
On the other hand, figures from Cambridge University researchers place the risk of Covid death, while negligible amongst the young, at 10,000 micromorts (or 1 per cent) in our 50s, increasing to 150,000 (15 per cent) over 80. For anyone over 50 who can add up, vaccination is a no-brainer.
How do the vaccination risks compare with everything else we don’t think twice about doing? Well, sitting in a chair exposes us to 1.3 micromorts, while falling off the chair increases it to 13. Should we stop sitting in chairs in case we fall off them? And, if you’re a water person, the risk of being killed by a shark carries 0.125 of a micromort, while the risk of drowning while swimming is 12 micromorts. I don’t know a single surfer who would allow the knowledge of these risks get in the way of a good wave.
But strangely, even perversely, some of the biggest risk-takers I know have chosen to focus on this infinitesimal risk to ramp up the most inane and downright dangerous campaigns against getting the jab, invoking everything from human rights to recycled conspiracy theories about global domination. One, a high-profile surfer who lives on a safe haven hill in a country where Covid deaths have just gone past 100,000, messaged me this week: “We are currently in an extremely dangerous situation right now with what is going on. We have been conned on a massive scale. I’ve been looking very closely what’s going on, and have come across an incredible amount of information since this virus agenda has started. What’s being revealed is that science has been corrupted for a very long time and that many things that we have taken to be scientifically proven facts are actually complete deceptions.”
My friend – and he is a friend, and I hope somehow remains so – sent me a link to the authoritative source he’s been looking closely at, which turns out to be BitChute, an alt-media website whose recent authoritative posts include “Passing out at vax center – how many red flags at jab sites until people wake up?”, “Massive victory in Canadian court proves Covid-19 a hoax”, and “Covid-positive illegal immigrants released into US”. This absurd repository of hate-speak and lies dispenses “inside information” to the gullible and the willing at a frightening rate, most of which is available only until YouTube catches up with it and deletes which, of course, is then seen by the believers to be further proof of the conspiracy.
For me the saddest aspect of this is that the people who spread this drivel claim the right to free speech, and yet what they are doing is in fact putting our faith in that basic tenet of democracy at risk. If my friend on the hill claiming his right to freedom of speech to spread this garbage causes one person to say no to vaccination, then I’m calling him an abuser of that wonderful and hard-fought right.
It also alarms me that the anti-vax debate is cutting deep into families. Another friend, a local, wrote to me: “My three children are all part of the anti-vaxer movement. It’s created a schism in our family I don’t think will ever be resolved. It hurts.”
He continued: “They believe they’re right and our governments are wrong, and that Covid-19 and its variants are a conspiracy by world governments to manipulate and monitor their freedom to travel where and when they so choose. These people do not think about the horrific consequences of their actions, including causing serious illness and possible death to loved ones, the elderly, and those that have ongoing health issues with chronic disease.”
That’s from the heart, and I feel his pain, but no doubt somewhere on BitofShit (or whatever it’s called) there’ll be an “expert opinion” refuting all of the above, but be quick, before YouTube pulls it down for misleading and dangerous information.
And then there’s this, from legendary former mayor Bob Abbot, posted on social media last week: “I’m in total support of everyone’s right to choose to vaccinate or not. There are times though, when one is making that decision, where there is more involved than just weighing up the risks and benefits for oneself.”
Bob, the erudite bushie, goes on to describe 120 years of Australia’s culture of mateship and sacrifice, best exemplified at Anzac Cove, and concludes: “In this current crisis we certainly see people who are willing to put themselves at risk to assist in protecting the society or community they live in. So yes, I do support freedom of choice regarding the CV jab, a choice which all those people fought to give us the right to have. My only plea is to think about what gave us that privilege, and let’s not forget our society when we make that decision. Let’s also consider what others have done over all those years past to protect us, some making the ultimate commitment, and indeed what thousands of everyday Australians are doing right now to make us as safe as we can be.”
I can’t state the case any better than Bob has in those beautiful words, other than to say that whatever your personal views on vaccination are, this is not the time to exercise them. Leave them at the door.
Walk in and get the frickin’ jab. Now!
