Pricks: An Open Letter to the Premiers

This is an open letter to Mark McGowan, Annastacia Palaszczuk and any of the other representatives that need a reminder of who they represent. I’ll also be forwarding this to my local MP and encourage any of my readers to do so too.

COVID-19 has been an absolute mind-fuck. I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it and we will all be very happy to see an end to this. Lockdowns are horrible, the misinformation shows the sad and sorry state of some people’s mental capacity to deal with significant events and also shows how absolutely disgusting the media can be.

I understand lockdowns, I understand quarantine and I do not at any point disagree with the need for either of them. I’m capable of both hating them, and understanding the reasoning behind them.

But this is not the point of the letter.

What astounds me is that a media that has been so problematic with spreading misinformation, is suddenly on the reasonable side of the vaccine debate. Namely when it comes to the AstraZeneca vaccine. For months, media outlets have been absolutely disgusting when it comes to vaccine coverage. Yet, as soon as McGowan and Palaszczuk come out swinging punches, the media comes to the defence of the AZ vaccine.

You and your health chiefs are spinning bullshit. It is actually disgusting the rhetoric that has come out since the PM announced that anyone can opt to have the AZ vaccine if they give informed consent. I’m genuinely confused as to what you don’t understand about that. What the media doesn’t seem to understand about that.

Do I like the PM? No, not at all. He’s a bible bashing twat. But what he said wasn’t exactly obscure or anything. It was clear to me. It was clear to many out there. How it wasn’t clear to any of you is honestly not clear to me.

You see, he made a statement saying that anyone who wants access to the AZ vaccine can go ahead and do so if they have the information and consent to it. It’s simple enough. He’s made no statement or change to the recommendation for under 60s to have the Pfizer vaccine. He hasn’t gone against the TGA or ATAGI. He has merely stated that if they want it, younger people can opt to get the AZ vaccine. Their risk, their choice. Do you understand now?

Many younger people I know are screaming out to have access to the AZ vaccine since they haven’t been eligible for the Pfizer, or the Pfizer jab has weeks of waits to get in. They’re not oblivious to the risks. They know what the risks are. They also know what the risks are if they get COVID. In fact, a few friends I know actually managed to get their GP to give them the AZ vaccine prior to the announcement because there’s stock sitting there waiting to be used or thrown out.

What you have done is attack the PM on this fact. You’ve attacked a PM that has given many people exactly what they were screaming out for. ScoMo didn’t make this decision in a vacuum. He hasn’t just decided ‘fuck it’ and changed the rules for nothing. People, your people, the people you represent wanted this. Now the PM has given that option to them.

What do you do in return? Condemn him. Condemn those you represent. You blow out of proportion what was announced and claim confusion. You claim the PM is making it up as he goes along, that he has added confusion to the whole vaccine debate. What confusion? I still don’t understand what you’re confused about?

I know this is hard for politicians to understand, but not everything has a double meaning, and a lack of information can mean that the old information still stands. He didn’t mention changing the recommendations, just that people can make a choice.

We are lucky in Australia that we have a choice whether to get a medical procedure or not, and whether we take a certain medicine or not. We have a range of medications available to us, as well as different vaccines. Look at the flu jab! There’s 2 choices now. 1 is superior to the other but we are welcome to have the older style and many will do that.

It isn’t unheard of that medications get replaced by better versions either. Versions with less side effects and even less risks of death. But people often do choose to stay on the old medications because they know it works for them, they know the risks and they choose to do it.

What the PM has allowed is, well, what we already enjoy as a people. Choice. Informed choice. If a person wishes to be vaccinated using the AZ vaccine they have the choice to see their doctor, receive the relevant information and make a choice to do that. A choice you have absolutely no right to take away from them.

Right now, the estimated death rate (at least according to media sources) is 1 in 1 million. Lets assume every single person in Australia got the AZ vaccine, which is obviously not going to happen, that’s 25 deaths. I don’t disagree that any death is a tragedy and we should be avoiding risk wherever possible.

But screaming from your soap box about the potential for death from this vaccine that could be avoided is absolutely shameful, when you allow people to continue to make informed (and sometimes uninformed) choices to kill themselves in other ways. You’re outraged that we might lose 25 people if every single person got vaccinated using AZ, but you’re not outraged about the other things that people can buy from the shops today and use whenever they want that result in many more unavoidable deaths.

• 24,000 deaths per year from cigarettes
• 1,600 deaths per year from alcohol

Where’s the outrage for that? Versus the 25 potential deaths from the AZ jab? It is beyond disgusting that you have this absolute outrage for the PM allowing people to consent to getting a minutely risky vaccine, but big meh on the things you can buy at the shops, which, by the way, were still purchasable during a lockdown.

I mean, are ciggies and booze really essential items? Probably not. But bottleshops were allowed to be open as essential during all lockdowns and ciggies are available at the supermarket or servo.

The public has expectations on their elected representatives. Whilst I’m not saying you should encourage people to get the AZ vaccine whilst the ATAGI and TGA both recommend the Pfizer jab, I strongly disagree with your position and your outrage. You are failing to meet the expectations of the public here.

You do not have the right to scaremonger people in to waiting for the vaccine. You fail in your duties as elected representatives when you stand on your soap box and tear shreds off people’s right to make informed decisions on their vaccine choices and you look like idiots when you think that banning this option is the right thing to do to save lives, but ciggies and alcohol are essential items during a lockdown.

I’m telling you that you need to respect these choices and respect those who wish to make those choices. Young people willing to make the informed choice to get vaccinated with whatever is available to help protect their community and bring back a normal life to all.

Mark, Annastacia, it is my generation that’s choosing to take the plunge. Your generation are the ones that held out for Pfizer because they were simply too scared.