On Monday Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk proudly announced the state had reached a vaccination milestone of 70 per cent of the population aged 16 years and over but as people rolled up to Noosa’s pop-up clinic on the weekend their reactions to the vaccine were mixed.
Noosa District State High School opened its doors on Saturday and Sunday for walk-ins to receive a Pfizer Covid vaccination dose.
The steady stream of attendees included parents with teenage children and individuals.
Most people Noosa Today spoke to were happy to get vaccinated and pleased the weekend clinic gave them access outside work hours.
Others talked about their concerns they were forced to have the vaccine and its possible long term effects.
One man said it wasn’t his choice to have the vaccine but he would have lost his job in the construction industry if he didn’t.
“There’s so many stories around about Covid. You don’t know what to believe,“ he said. “There seems to be a lot of vaccinated people in hospital with it. They say it’s not mandatory but there’s all these exclusions.
“They’ve got us over a barrel. You won’t be able to live if you don’t have it.“
One woman said she was not against vaccinations but would have liked it to have been around longer to know the long term effects.
“I’m concerned about the quickness of the vaccine’s creation and it’s effects,“ she said.
Premier Palaszczuk said the strong turnout at school pop-up clinics contributed to the vaccination reaching its milestone with three million Queenslanders now fully vaccinated and consequent easing of restrictions.
“People who have been in a hotspot in the past 14 days can now enter Queensland and home quarantine if they are fully vaccinated, are arriving by air, have had a negative Covid-19 test in the 72 hours prior to arriving and meet additional criteria,” she said.
“While our home quarantine trial was for returning Queenslanders, anyone can now apply if they believe they meet the eligibility criteria.”
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said more than 9400 people received their jabs at 58 schools over the weekend.
More school pop-up clinics will be lined up for vaccinations this weekend.
“We particularly want to reach people who are yet to receive their first vaccination. We know there are now more than 820,000 eligible Queenslanders aged 12 and over who are completely unprotected,“ Ms D’Arth said.
You can walk into any Queensland Health community vaccination location, including pop-up locations, or register your interest to make a booking at health.qld.gov.au/vaccinebookings
