We need to get back to normal despite anti-vaxxers conspiring

It was sickening to see that, in their quest to point out the supposed “evils” of Covid vaccinations, anti-vaxxers last week used Holocaust Remembrance Day to liken jabs to the rise of Nazism.

Local anti-vaxxers gleefully reposted the Holocaust comparisons on social media, clearly oblivious of some salient facts – like, there is no vaccine mandate yet in this country and that those who refuse to get the jab are not being shoved into cattle cars and taken off to the death camps.

This historical ignorance and wilful distortion of the past goes hand in hand with a tsunami of fake or inaccurate news about vaccines and specifically about their alleged lethality.

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The fact that the number of deaths from vaccines has been vanishingly small, despite more than 10 billion doses being administered worldwide, is blatantly ignored, with the allegation that the “mainstream media” is a hiding a massive conspiracy to control the world.

The fact that our vaccination campaign is stalling in this country is a worrying indication that the anti-vaxxers are beating the government and medical experts at the communication game.

Those medical experts worldwide have said two things about vaccination.

Firstly, it reduces the probability of severe disease, hospitalisation and death. And secondly, vaccination and boosters dramatically reduce mortality – by up to 99%.

Despite the fact that the Omicron variant is, apparently, less virulent, people – and especially unvaccinated ones – are ending up in hospital and dying.

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Some of them may have believed the propaganda that getting natural immunity via infection was the best way to beat Covid-19.

Vaccination mandates must seriously be discussed.

The recent CCMA case which upheld the dismissal of an anti-vaxxer may not set a precedent, but it is an indication that employers can fire such people.

We need to get back to normal. And anti-vaxxers are stopping this.