You’d be Crazy to Hang About Waiting For a ‘Better’ Vaccine - Covid is Quicker.

Here’s  a ‘V-sign’, as in victory,  to the only story in town: the variants, the vaccines and older Australians’ vacillation about getting the plentiful AstraZeneca jab.

We may have little choice around the virus apart from isolating and hoping for the best. But the feeling there should be some personal choice between AstraZeneca and Pfizer has fired up delays which will have ‘Delta’ delighted.

The ‘Delta’ variant, of course, has no thoughts or emotions. It’s not even a cell, but it has proved as cunning and stealthy as may be expected.

It can transmit between humans so quickly and replicate in our cells so massively it has had a dream run around much of the world.

It’s doing OK here, proving it can handle lockdowns and sneak across closed borders. If it had any consciousness, it would probably applaud those spreading doubt and fear in their claims of various kinds of nonsense.

And if COVID had any sense of fear, it would be about our outstanding immune systems, which is given a kick-start to kick-ass the virus by the two vaccines available here.

I don’t need to carry on about the effectiveness, and very low risk of both, certainly compared with the devastation COVID can cause, especially to older people. You can search for the facts from reputable sources, i.e. medical authorities and not online witch-doctors.

The initial infection is one thing and for some is trivial or even undetectable. But increasing reports of the chronic impact of ‘long covid’ for months afterwards on the heart, brain, energy and even sexual function are genuinely scary.

I had my second AZ jab last Friday. It was a three-month wait since the first, and given the Sydney outbreak and living in Bondi I was mighty grateful for the opportunity.

The very idea other older Australians are holding out for Pfizer in the mistaken belief it is somehow ‘better’, while increasing the time they are vulnerable to an ‘age-inappropriate’* germ that is infinitely worse, is frankly crazy.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics, very soon to bring us the census, has found more than one-quarter of those aged 70 and over are refusing AZ and are holding out for a different vaccine. Some of them, such as Moderna, aren’t even onshore yet.

Yes, there’s been confusion and mixed messages. And yes, you might not be receptive to perceived self-righteous hectoring or even the exhortations of the PM and premiers. But for goodness sake, don’t worry about others. Be most concerned about the actual safety issues and not any imagined nor exaggerated risks.

Those in special cases with other conditions may need medical advice, but the majority do not and may for once follow the lead of younger people.

They are jumping on board the AZ bus quick smart even though their risk is much lower and are wisely not hanging around for any Pfizer delivery, not knowing when that might be.

Covid can be quick, so why take the chance?

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* Age: while some young and middle-aged adults can develop serious complications or die from Covid-19, the risks rise sharply with age because immune systems tend to deteriorate with age and because older people are more likely to have chronic conditions. For example, the mortality rate from Covid-19 in England and Wales at age 80–84 is about eight times greater than at age 60–64.  Source The King’s Fund, an independent UK charity. 


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