OUR CHANCE TO LEAD THE NATION

DAVID Walsh has a unique way of doing most things but if you haven’t read his email to Mona staff about his decision to mandate vaccinations, then do yourself a favour. He explains the reasons behind his support for vaccination against coronavirus in a different but logical way using the analogy of traffic lights.

His point being, we accept certain rules in our lives so as to minimise our risk of harming others.

As selfish as we can at times be, as humans, our tendency is toward following rules for the greater good. We’ve seen that in the main with lockdowns and we need to see more of it when it comes to vaccination.

We are so lucky in Tasmania that most of our residents understand health advice and the vast majority will vaccinate as soon as they can.

Indeed polling released by the Mercury this week showed 79 per cent of those surveyed in Tasmania believed vaccinations were the way out of lockdowns. That was the highest result in the country.

Tasmanians absolutely get it. And we stand a very, very good chance of having the highest vaccination rates in the country, which means when we do get coronavirus it will not spread quickly and the vaccinated who do get it won’t get anywhere near as sick.

There has been some horribly damaging hysteria whipped up across the country. In particular, the Queensland and Western Australia premiers have a lot to answer for. Their vaccination rates are the worst in the country and no wonder given the constant undermining they do of the rollout all the while lying to their residents by promising they can keep their states Covid-free when they know they can’t.

Locally on ABC morning radio, there’s been so much discussion about whether or not Tasmania is ready to open and it seems to also whip up fear. The problem with the discussion is it rarely, if ever, looks at the issue properly through the lens of an 80 per cent or higher vaccination rate.

No one is saying the state will open tomorrow but once we hit appropriate vaccination levels, we must open. There still may be some restrictions and no one is saying Australia will have a “freedom day” like that seen in the UK, but there will be a path out. The rate of infection, the hospitalisation and death rates will be significantly reduced compared to a presentday scenario.

Yes there needs to be discussion and action taken regarding our woeful health system but the suggestion that opening up is a choice is wrong. It’s not should we open, it’s when.

Given we are already leading the nation in terms of vaccination uptake, it’s time to lead the nation in terms of our plans for living with Covid.