As a medical doctor of 30 years, and citizen, I have watched the last 18 months with confusion.
Initially we were all worried about the unknown virus. Then we mostly agreed with slowing the curve of infections through some border controls etc. Then we mostly agreed to some short-term ‘lockdowns’ to stop local outbreaks.
With varying degrees of compliance and willingness we have gone along with having our every movement tracked and wearing masks in public.
But really, folks! When does it end? How much are we prepared to accept? How many businesses have to go broke? How many isolated people have to suffer depression or even suicide? How many days do children need to stunt their social/emotional development by being isolated? How many people need to die, with their loved ones unable to visit before we say ‘enough’!
I have resisted the pull of the Byron Shire conspiracy mongers for nearly 20 years, but more and more the question ‘What’s going on here?’ needs to be asked. And never more so than about this latest idea, to vaccinate children! This is wrong!
I believe the risk to children from covid is not zero, but it is minuscule. While the risk of these new vaccination technologies, based on what we know already is significant, the protection is weak, and short lived.
No one could say I’m ‘anti-vax’. I’ve vaccinated hundreds of people. I believe vaccination is perhaps the best achievement western medicine has ever devised. But never before have we vaccinated young people to protect old people, and never with a vaccine with this many adverse effects.
When the ship goes down, we save the women and children first, the able bodied next and the elderly last of all. It has always been this way and rightly so. I am over 50, and I do not want any young person getting vaccinated to protect me!
Isn’t it time we stopped panicking and accepted that covid is here to stay? And that it’s okay to reduce risk, but impossible to make the world safe?
Dr Tim Devine, Medical Practitioner, Brunswick Heads
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