IT’S been a long time coming …. but on Wednesday I will finally get my first COVID vaccine jab.
This journey started months ago when I first put my name down on two different waiting lists.
After growing impatient, I spent an hour on a coronavirus “hotline” unsuccessfully trying to chase up my waiting list status. While the Premier was telling me to not hesitate to get my jab, I couldn’t lock in a date full stop. But I kept pushing. Where there’s a will, right?
Fortunately, I have since scored a spot at a local GP clinic. I’m locked in.
Rather than be bitter about the painfully slow vaccine rollout, or who is to blame, I’ve decided this is not a moment to look in the rear-vision mirror.
Instead, my impending jab feels like a step in the right direction.
And I’m not alone in that.
With vaccine supplies finally hitting town, locals are rolling up their sleeves in big numbers and doing their part for their families, friends and country.
That is the thing about country communities. Locals tend to think of others around them and not just themselves.
Most people across Australia have accepted that our only way to live with COVID-19 is through vaccination.
We have seen the way other countries are starting to live and we want a piece of it.
In countries where vaccination rates are high, infection rates may be climbing again as they open up, but the key stat is that death rates and hospitalisations are down.
Iceland, for example, has opened up due to its high vaccination rates and life is again feeling relatively normal. They have recommended only one metre separation between people, rather than 1.5m, allowing more businesses to stay active. They are not constantly reminding people of the rules with signs on windows and stickers on the floors. They are increasingly trusting their citizens to make their own risk assessments and do the right thing without constantly hounding them.
In Australia, we can’t go to the toilet without QR coding in.
While case numbers have risen in Iceland and now sit at a much higher level than previously in the country, tellingly, no Icelander has died of COVID-19 during the recent outbreak.
It should give us reason for hope if we can get our vaccination rates to a similarly high level.
In comparison, the United States is continuing to have problems.
Whether through ignorance or truculence, about 90 million out of a population of 330 million remain unvaccinated, so the virus continues to spread between the unvaccinated at a rapid rate, sadly claiming many lives on its destructive path.
The irony is the parts of the country that have the greatest of surges are the places that are the least likely to be imposing vaccine requirements.
Perhaps, may of them would rather be dead than wrong.
Fortunately, I don’t think the majority of Australians share that mindset. We want to do the right thing and we are rushing in to be booked.
For most of us, it is a race.
Sunraysia Daily, together with Sunraysia Community Health Services, Mallee District Aboriginal Services, Mildura Rural City Council and the Mildura Base Public Hospital, have been running a campaign over the past two weeks titled: “We’re vaccinated. Are you?” It highlights heroes of our community who have been double vaccinated and encourages others to follow suit. On Wednesday, I get to play my part.
It might come with the odd side effect, but I know I will feel better for it.
Keep up the momentum, Sunraysia.
