WHEN asked last week by the Public Health Agency to make a short video encouraging people to attend our local Covid vaccination centres before they closed for first vaccinations, I was happy to do so. I was aware this would leave me open to attacks from the anti-vaxxers – not that this deterred me.
I first wrote about Covid in this column on February 8 2020. At that time, the outbreak was thought contained in China, yet even back then I highlighted the danger posed by anti-vaxxers, writing "even when we discover effective vaccines for diseases, the danger doesn't end".
Much has happened in the interim, with Covid endemic across the world, resulting in 200m infections and 4.25m deaths – and rising. Yet, even in the face of such illness and death, a toxic minority continue to peddle anti-vax misinformation which has resulted in a sizeable section of our society remaining unvaccinated.
Initially, I was baffled by how people could seriously argue Covid wasn't happening. I suspected they were exclusively that wacky minority whose world view includes flying saucers, the moon landing being fake and Elvis being alive and well, eating hamburgers in Memphis while dressed as an elderly woman.
That changed when I watched television coverage of anti-lockdown marches where thousands 'demanded their freedom'. Defiantly refusing to wear masks or follow other Covid regulations, those protesting demonstrated their entitled self-obsession and selfishness, arbitrarily opting out of "we're all in this together" in favour of "I'm alright Jack, sod you".
It looked as if we were sliding backwards into a new Dark Age, where superstition trumped science. Instead of "burn the witch", the new war cry had become "attack the scientist, doctor, nurse and midwife".
I'm fully aware nothing I write will change the mind of Covid deniers or anti-vaxxers. No matter, I'm more interested in those who've stepped up and done their bit to shorten this pandemic by taking the vaccine or, most importantly, working in our Health Service.
Most right-thinking people were horrified when anti-vax campaigner, Kate Shemirani, used a speech at a rally in Trafalgar Square in London last month to threaten doctors and nurses. Ms Shemirani had worked as a nurse before being permanently struck off the previous month for claiming 5G caused Covid-like symptoms and for spreading Covid vaccine disinformation.
Soon after, Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), encouraged pregnant women to get vaccinated only to endure a torrent of online abuse and threats. Some trolls compared her, and other nurses, to serial killer Myra Hindley and the Nazis.
Following this attack, health organisations including the RCM, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the NHS Confederation, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing signed a letter calling for "an end to the abuse aimed at doctors and nurses during the pandemic, especially from anti-vaxxers".
Yet, on Tuesday past, this paper reported the case of Dr Chris Hagan, the Medical Director of the Belfast Trust, who spoke about the online abuse both he and colleagues had experienced after encouraging people to get vaccinated. Dr Hagan said he'd been "threatened with summary street justice" and had been called "a psychopath".
This cannot continue. During this pandemic, our health workers have given their all, with some even losing their lives. I would therefore urge those in the public eye to think carefully before supporting or sharing anti-vax disinformation which encourages such attacks.
We all have a responsibility to support those working to save lives and end this pandemic; those who don't will find that a stain on their character not easily erased.
Boris Johnson has promised there won't be a 'Covid passport'; we know better than most what that means. I suspect many of those claiming irrevocable opposition to the vaccine will experience a Damascene conversion when the find they're unable to go on holiday, to a theatre or even sit inside a restaurant without one.
The lines are clearly drawn, and we must all decide with whom we stand. A litmus test is to consider whose company you'll be joining and ask yourself if they the sort of people you wish to associate with.
As for me, I stand with the world's scientists, virologists and medics, and I'd urge you to join us and get your vaccine. Sadly, no matter how advanced science may become, no vaccine will ever be invented to cure two of humanity's greatest maladies – namely, our wilful gullibility and stupidity.
