As the new year broke and we welcomed 2021 people honestly had renewed hope that everything would be miraculously ok despite what was going on in mainland Australia and indeed the world, Tassie was relatively untouched by the virus in the last 6 months.
Our premiere was the hero of the state keeping everybody safe, and while he was working hard doing this his government, we’re also working hard introducing the new QR code check-in to every business in Tasmania, also announcing 2 quarantine facilities to be run by special operations group officers. Money seemed no problem suddenly with massive spending across the state, all to do with the coronavirus. Yet somehow, we had forgotten about all our other problems in the state.
The homeless were still homeless, the housing market boomed yet there was nowhere for people to rent a house and if they could find one it was an extra $6,000 a year more than it used to be, even caravan parks are charging $100 a night. And then, of course, there was the shadow pandemic! all those poor Tasmanians who were suffering other illnesses yet couldn’t be seen to for some strange reason because of the coronavirus. They cancelled elective surgeries. Our largest hospital on the Northwest coast had its emergency department closed for weeks upon weeks, all because of coronavirus, even though we had seen none in the state for months.
And just like when we first heard about the virus, now we’ve heard about the cure and that’s honestly how it was portrayed here: this vaccine will protect you! Now they had everybody’s attention and with the Australian government securing millions of doses and planning to vaccinate the entire country, most Tasmanians were welcoming this. In fact, I’m sure if they just asked everyone, they would have gotten high numbers anyway and although our prime minister stood in front of a TV camera and said he would not back door, the nation by mandating the vaccination, it’s still happened.
The premiers of each state took it upon themselves to make the new covid-19 vaccines mandatory for certain business sectors. In fact, they put the onus on the business themselves, saying it was their duty to ensure their staff were double vaccinated. This is where the division started. People wrongly assuming they had a choice in this, they were told to not only to have it but if they didn’t, they would lose their jobs! Even some of our doctors and nurses, the very people who you could with very good reason assume would know best about all this, refused the vaccine and then yesterday’s heroes were todays unemployed!
Since then, it’s plain to see there are three groups of people in Tasmania. First are those who willingly took the vaccine and were happy to do so. Second are those who took the vaccine under duress and fear of losing their income and not being able to support their family. And finally, those who will never take it.
Here we are in November and if you believe the government’s numbers Tasmania is over 80% double vaccinated, yet the heartache, pain, hurt, and betrayal is felt every day. Friends that voice their opinions against this on social media are shot down in flames ridiculed and told they are dangerous society for not wanting to take the vaccine.
Family members have banned others in the family from entering their properties or visiting their children or grandchildren because they haven’t had the vaccine. Everything on social media is suddenly censored. You cannot speak against the mandatory vaccinations, or your account will be restricted. If a post is shared and then even proved partly incorrect by fact-checkers, then you’re in trouble again.
Those who started researching the pandemic back at the start and then the vaccines as they were rolled out, we’re coming out with some disturbing stories from the United Kingdom and America apparently the vaccine was killing people, lowering their immune systems and subjecting them to other illnesses. How could this be true! Surely not? But the stories kept coming thick and fast, adverse reactions galore on the vaccine’s adverse events reporting system in America.
On Australia’s TGA website the therapeutic goods association in May after just 3.6 million doses had been rolled out in Australia, they admitted to 210 deaths linked directly to the vaccine, but they keep telling us it’s safe and effective and that there’s always going to be unfortunate reactions and in some cases death but only on a very rare occasion. By October on their website, they had changed how they determined death and now there were over 600 deaths reported after they administered the vaccine, but they were only attributing 9 to the actual vaccine. How could this be?
People started questioning everything. And now here we are Sunday, November 14th and as Tasmania reaches record high vaccination status, people are begging for answers. The ambulances that may have been heard once a week are two three and four times a day, the hospitals a full and they are not covid patients. Remembering there has case here in over 12 months.
One of the common questions between friends and strangers on the street was do you know anyone that’s ever had covid and the answer was never yes. Now the common question on the street is, do you know anyone with an adverse reaction? Amazingly, the answer never seems to be no. From severe chest pains to terrible rashes, bell’s palsy pericarditis, myocarditis and just deathly sick due to low immune systems and finally death, we have now heard of them all.
An Australian group was started for adverse reactions. It went from 2000 people to 44000 people in 5 weeks before Facebook shut it down for spreading misinformation. These were stories of real Australians, their family and friends sharing horrific tales of adverse reactions with seemingly no help from the medical profession. They gave no answers. Nobody seemed to know why these people were in the state they were Healthwise.
Stickers and flyers have been placed around our cities and towns warning against taking the vaccine or at the very least questioning why our democratic rights are being taken away, community groups are rallying together supporting each other and pouring all their time and effort into research into emailing their members of parliament and having large group meetings to support each other.
Australians are a resilient bunch this does not exclude Tasmania the people here just wanted to be safe now they just want answers…
Thank you for your article. I have a huge soft spot for Tasmania and its beautiful people. We all just want answers. The coersion, segregation, discrimination and censorship must stop. We need to come together as Australians and stand up for our freedom and democracy – especially for our children!