“Women & Over-55s Most Reluctant to be Vaccinated”

In the short life of the FiftyUp Club I can’t think of an issue more age-related, relevant and yet divisive as the decisions we face around the COVID vaccines.

Your comments as ever are lively, although frustration felt by all sides seems to be creeping in too. To some it’s a simple obvious choice to get the jab; to others a much more complex dilemma.

While I’m an unashamed supporter of the vaccine program for us, we aim to share many views in the belief transparency, common sense and consensus shall prevail.

The headlines from the Sydney Morning Herald, May 20 are clear: “Women and Over-55s most Reluctant to be vaccinated”.

In the past few days Greg Hunt the health minister spelled it out clearly: “Vaccination can save lives and protect lives,” he said. “If you aren‘t vaccinated, and you do catch COVID, you can die. It’s as simple as that.”

He has urged Australians over the age of 50  not to wait and book in an AstraZeneca COVID-19 jab  because they are still at higher risk of dying.

We are at the heart of this debate: to be vaccinated or not; should we have a choice of the vaccine; and are they safe or merely experimental?

The full-page government ads in the weekend newspapers asking if you are aged 50 and over indicate the concern: how our age cohort behaves around the vaccine is vital to the national recovery.

There were too many comments from last week (read them here) to begin to answer but in terms of the relative merits between the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines please review the comments from our ‘expert’ in last week’s blog.

Sadly, in our ‘post-truth’ world the very term expert is tarnished and authority debased. I know our expert and believe in their knowledge and their intent, along with many others, to get us through the pandemic as best we can.

But not all agree.

Diane from VIC commented:

I object to the condemnatory attitude displayed here by the claimed 'experts, as if they can say for certain what they claim is correct. Just who REALLY knows and can say with certainty on this issue? And realising that fact, what right does ANY person have to downplay or ridicule the very genuine concerns we sensible people have about possible or probable threats to our lives? Perhaps showing a bit of respect might be a good basis for effective communication, 'experts’.

The last word this week might be this:

Anonymous from VIC commented:

I wish 50 Up club would go back to offering electricity discounts and not trying to be influencers.

Yes, everyone tends to agree about power prices and are interested in paying less but rightly or wrongly we can’t put the vaccine cat back in the bag.

Here’s to rational, educated and civilised debate about this very important issue with the simple advice that if you have a good GP you trust, go and ask them and not Dr Google.

Anonymous in WA commented:

At 83 and living a slow but comfortable life with my 83 year old wife out playing tennis both with several ailments that go with old age, but thanks to our Doctors’ advice (we have different doctors) we had the AZ jab along with most of our friends. Unless we have to start attending massive funerals in the near future our doctors’ advice is where we will go. 

Any information is general advice, it does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs.