As we watch from afar as crowds fill stadiums and travel resumes overseas, Australia, once the envy of the world for its COVID-19 management, now seems to have fallen behind.
No one is feeling the impact of Australia’s COVID failures more sorely than young Australians, who with each lockdown and each day of closed borders lose a little more of what are supposed to be the greatest years of our lives. So it’s no surprise that when Prime Minister Scott Morrison (potentially accidentally) announced under-40s could request an AstraZeneca shot from their GP, many young adults jumped at the chance.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been missing many things, among them: sufficient supply; effective administration; convincing marketing; and clear messaging. But an absent element that rests in the hands of the public is momentum. Due to Australia’s elimination approach to COVID, and the relatively normal way of life many of us had been leading until recently, there has been next to no sense of urgency to get to the vaccine finish line. Young Australians, however, feel differently.
The mood among my friends and peers in their 20s and 30s is that we are itching to get vaccinated. Many (including myself) are considering taking up the loophole and requesting the out-of-favour “AZ” vaccine. On Twitter, several under-40s shared they had secured a doctor’s appointment and received the AZ shot within 24 hours of Morrison’s press conference. It seems many of us are simply not willing to wait.
Why does this sense of urgency exist among young Australians, but not older generations? I’d posit that while older and vulnerable Australians are most affected by getting COVID, it’s young Australians who bear the brunt of the repeated and unexpected lockdowns used to maintain our elimination strategy. From high school sport through to uni graduation, or even budget travel while we’re relatively free of obligations, the longer the pandemic drags on, the more Australia’s youth will miss out on seminal experiences we’ll never be able to get back.
Experiences such as being a Year 12 student, for example, are a one-time-only deal. These are formative, crucial years in a person’s life that have been irretrievably taken from young people, and this will continue until we seriously start looking for the exit. While I would never seek to suggest one group of Australians are uniquely victimised by this pandemic, I think the fleeting nature of youth explains why young Aussies are so determined to take up the mantle for themselves and do anything they can to end the lockdowns and invigorate the vaccine rollout with the momentum it so desperately needs.
As for why young people are potentially less likely to be tentative about the risks of the AZ shot? It could be youthful invincibility, or maybe the general sentiment among youth in favour of vaccines, but I think it’s the numbers. The messaging on the risks have been so inconsistent that naturally people have ended up doing their own analysis. Many of my female friends cited the contraceptive pill comparison as a compelling justification. While not a perfect analogy (the type of clot and risk of death differ), the contraceptive pill is statistically much more likely to cause a blood clot than the AZ vaccine. Many of us were prescribed the pill as teenagers without much thought, and some have been on it for years, so the logical leap is an easy one.
For me personally, I am incredibly tempted to do my bit to get the momentum moving towards an end to this wretched saga.
Josefine Ganko is a final year law and public policy student at the ANU and a former editor at Woroni.
Trust me kids – this boomer is just as keen as you to get Australia out of lockdown – I’m missing the best years of my overseas granddaughters’ lives!
In Melbourne it’s not just young people who are keen to get vaccinated. We’ve been hammered by four Lockdowns, including the harsh Second Lockdown, when we had to stay within 5 kms of home and obey a stay-at-home Curfew from 8.00 pm to 5.00 am every night. That was in addition to the usual Lockdown restrictions and as the Second Lockdown lasted for almost four months, it was like something from the end-of-the-world movie “Mad Max”. Melburnians will do anything to avoid another Lockdown and getting the AZ vaccine will help in that regard, so I expect there’ll be a high uptake of AZ in Melbourne.
“Melburnians will do anything to avoid another Lockdown and getting the AZ vaccine will help in that regard, so I expect there’ll be a high uptake of AZ in Melbourne.”
The stupidity astounds me. Even with these experimental jabs you’re still not allowed to go anywhere because you can still be affected – No guarantees whatsoever. Check this out for information. https://tinyurl.com/24nue2x2 .”Panic Porn Dressed Up As Science” – Exposing The Truth About The Delta Variant
James
Same old same old. Please stop posting the same anti science, anti vax links
Just HTF would you know ? No links , no brains – just a stupid comment . Grow up.
You haven’t the imagination to even present new garbage.
It’s screaming out for new conspiracy theories because your old ones have become simple, everyday reality.
Reminds me of the mother of two young children who refuses to vaccinate them against anything. She said why should she get them vaccinated against measles for instance, when we don’t’ have measles in Australia. FFS, and she is studying to be a chiropractor!
“and she is studying to be a chiropractor!”
Well, that kinda explains her ignorant stance on vaccines, doesn’t it?
Could be worse, aroma therapy or homeopathy.
I haven’t used the loophole (yet) to get the vaccine, but I get why a lot of my fellow millennials would. While the vaccine rollout continues at a snail’s pace, we are locked out of getting one unless we happen to work in particular sectors. This makes sense from an epidemiological perspective as we are at a lower risk from an outbreak, but it still sucks that we are stuck at the end of the queue (like in nearly every other respect in this society) without even a target in sight for when it is our turn. It’s housing all over again, where the government feels it’s important to make sure boomer investors are looked after but not Generation Rent.
When I think of the demographics working the service jobs – the people whose job it is to interact with others, and thus the people who are more likely to pass a deadly virus throughout the community – I wonder if the government has it right in who gets the vaccines first. The front lines are the checkouts, or the people serving food, or behind the bar, or teaching at the front a class of 30. All low priority because of age.
Being vaccinated will not give you 100% protection from contracting the disease.
The [Israeli] Government has warned that if deaths increase, tougher border restrictions will be imposed.
Professor Davidovitch said that while the Delta variant remained a concern, the vaccination program provided a major buffer.
“This is indeed giving us the option to lead an almost normal life,” he said.
Days after his comments about Israel’s outbreak, Scott Morrison said countries with high vaccinate rates appear to have tamed the virus into something resembling the flu. [Trump anyone]
Israel, reeling under the Indian Delta variant despite massive vaccinations…
This week, Israel re-imposed a rule requiring masks to be worn in indoor public venues.
It has also delayed a plan to let vaccinated tourists in.
Aside from that, most of the economy remains open and Israelis can even travel overseas, although they were being encouraged to avoid it.
Young NSW and Australian voters need to inform themselves as to which party in Australia was interested in protecting them, their parents, grandparents and friends and relatives from death. And it’s not the Godfather of Crime Morrison’s Mafia who have been and still are ever eager to let it rip like the UK, India, USA, Brazil etc. The Crikey Worm today refers readers to this:
”Experts react with dismay to ‘frightening’ attitude of Sajid Javid towards removing protections
UK scientists have warned that the lifting of all Covid-19 restrictions is like building new “variant factories” at a very fast rate, and said the attitude of the new health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, is “frightening”.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Javid said the best way to protect the nation’s health was by lifting the main Covid-19 restrictions.
Reacting to the comments, Prof Stephen Reicher at the University of St Andrews, a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science, tweeted: “It is frightening to have a ‘health’ secretary who still thinks Covid is flu. Who is unconcerned at levels of infection. Who doesn’t realise that those who do best for health, also do best for the economy. Who wants to ditch all protections while only half of us are vaccinated.
“Above all, it is frightening to have a ‘health’ secretary who wants to make all protections a matter of personal choice when the key message of the pandemic is “this isn’t an ‘I’ thing, it’s a ‘we’ thing.””
The last paragraph is exactly the same message the NSW Coalition has been giving residents, and now the Ruby Princess Shredder Jiklian finds herself trying to put the genie back in the bottle as they flout her feeble attempts to control the searingly ugly Indian Delta variant.
Please update yourself re this so called Delta Variant. https://tinyurl.com/24nue2x2 .”Panic Porn Dressed Up As Science” – Exposing The Truth About The Delta Variant