The month before the pandemic, I was on my way to Brisbane when the pilot made an announcement.
“Ladies and gentleman,” he said, “I’ve been flying planes for 20 years, but the young man in seat 12A has watched a lot of TikTok videos about aeroplanes and he tells me I am doing it wrong, so I am letting him take over the controls. Enjoy your flight!”
OK, so this didn’t happen. But when I see people who have never studied medicine or science sharing scepticism about covid vaccines, that’s exactly how it feels. When you’re not qualified to have an informed opinion, and your actions could hurt others, you really should defer to the experts.
The federal government is considering health orders that might exempt vaccinated people from covid restrictions. This is the type of legislation that is being enacted overseas, in Britain, for example, with the NHS Covid Pass, and in Israel with vaccine certificates.
It is possible and likely that this type of legislation will create a two-tiered system in this country. On the one tier will be vaccinated people who can go to restaurants and movies, and gather for sporting events and travel, and lead satisfying lives.
On the other tier will be people standing up for their right to disbelieve science, who will have tons of time to enjoy their righteousness in the comfort of their own homes.
But even without this legislation, wilfully unvaccinated people may well be pushed to the outskirts of society, as the rational majority turn away from the unvaccinated minority.
It will be a process of natural selection, as anti-vaxxers have a particular personality trait that many sensible people find repellent. Specifically, they demonstrate a form of gullibility merged with arrogance that I call ‘gullibance, as ‘arrogability’ is quite hard to pronounce.
Gullibant people believe that influencers without any specialised training or knowledge know better than experts in the field. But lay people simply do not have insider information, as Dr Janet Curry – a US emergency physician working with covid patients – explained so perfectly on Twitter:
“Your friend from high school ‘who has done all the research and knows the truth about vaccines’, hasn’t and doesn’t. I have 2 degrees and 30 years of experience in medicine and I usually have to read these articles several times to make sure I understand them.”
Literally every medical body in every country around the world is recommending vaccinations to protect against severe illness and death. In the US, where 97 per cent of people hospitalised are unvaccinated, the latest covid wave is being called a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’.
Here in Australia, no-one who is fully vaccinated has yet died from covid, or been in ICU. Yes, vaccines pose small risks, just like every other medication, but they are far, far smaller than the risks of covid.
Still, I’m not here to convince you to get vaccinated. I’m here to point out the gullibance of not believing the evidence.
Happily, anti-vaxxers offer the rest of us in society an extremely handy culling tool. Often when you have an opportunity to befriend someone, or to date them, or perhaps have them as a flatmate, it can take a while to work out if your values are compatible.
But now, you can just ask your new acquaintance, “Are you vaccinated?” Their response will give you a great deal of information.
If they answer, ‘I’m fully vaccinated,’ or ‘I have my shot next Thursday!’ or (more likely, here in Australia) ‘I’m on the waiting list!’ you know they are likely to be reasonably decent and intelligent.
But if they say, ‘No, vaccines cause 5G, haven’t you heard?’ or ‘No way, vaccines contain microchips sent by Bill Gates!’ or ‘Vaccines are much more risky than covid!’ then you’ll know to walk away.
Still, even if there is a two-tiered society, the anti-vaxxers will not be lonely. They will have plenty of company on the fringes of our community, hanging with the other gullibant people: the flat earthers, the climate change deniers, and the people who believe Joe Biden stole the US election.
And if our borders ever open, and they are allowed to travel without a vaccination, the nice man from seat 12A can pilot their plane.
Kerri Sackville is a freelance writer and author of Out There: A Survival Guide for Dating in Midlife | @KerriSackville
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