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That's an opinion. What is vaccine hesitancy based on - if not fear?
In case you haven't noticed, we haven't been able to attend large gatherings, associate freely or travel within Australia for over a year. Why? Because it is necessary. Eventually, your freedom to once again enjoy those 'benefits' will be determined upon whether you played your role in minimising the burden on the healthcare system in the midst of a global pandemic.
Call it "discrimination" all you wish - I call it being a responsible person who has signed the social contract - allowing me to enjoy the rights that being part of a society brings. And I'm far from alone in that view.
Once we have sufficient supplies of Moderna and Pfizer, should our vaccine rates not be at a high enough %, then reasonable and lawful restrictions that discriminate based on vaccine status will be enacted regardless of your opinion. This may include restricting freedoms on employment, attending events, venues, travel etc. In times of emergency, these restrictions will be deemed lawful and able to be enforced.
When the sh*t hits the fan, pragmatism will always take precedence over empty ideology.
I hear you and pro vax and fully vaccinated already. FTR I find those who don't get vaccinated selfish. but I don't like to push my medical beliefs on others in the form of discrimination. That said I do accept there are a number of reasons why people don't vaccinate:
1) medical reasons including mental health
2) religious beliefs (valid or not)
3) anti-big pharma
4) the real risks including death
The challenge for governments, society and health institutions is to prosecute their argument to encourage vaccination. The tools in place such as Family Benefits and potentially paying people to vax are excellent carrot and stick approaches which do not impede on freedoms.
Consider another angle being a "would be rapist or murder", unfortunately we don't punish them for what may be. Regardless of how we may feel about these individuals, this is one concept that makes our society great as it moves away from mob rule and discrimination.
However when it comes to the un-vaccinated, we are calling for preemptive action and discrimination based on the risk they may have Covid. When in reality the chances they have it is low and those vaccinated may also have Covid.
I also hear the issue of health resources, but we have had over a year to prepare once the "opportunity" for all to get vaccinated rolls around. So this is an issue of planning not an excuse for discrimination.
Planning is pragmatism, discrimination is discrimination and fear. Our job as a society is to not lose what makes us great and give into temptations of the past such as discriminating against women (to control them), to discriminate against aborigines (to control or mitigate their existence). As soon as you see others as "different", start to marginalise those who are different, start to punish those that are different...........this is a slippery slope with a well trodden past.
Further there are 6,000 deaths each year in Oz related to alcohol. If we are fearful of "others" dying, then why don't we ban alcohol or discriminate against alcohol drinkers whether they have had a drink that day or not?
This same issue of alcohol costs Australia at $36B, so by banning alcohol and discriminating against alcohol drinkers (FYI I'm not a teetotaler) we could inject this $36B into the health system.
To be honest, I thought Australia's youth was better than this. I only expected this type of behaviour from those brought up in a day when discrimination was acceptable and institutionalised.