Coronavirus crisis: What is stopping ‘vaccine hesitant’ West Aussies from getting the jab

Vaccine hesitancy, the health experts call it. It’s a catch-all term for a particular malady that seems to have flourished in the pure, clean air of WA while the rest of the country has succumbed to COVID. But you might just as well call it vaccine apathy. Or vaccine indifference. Or vaccine annoyance as in, “Hey I’ll get around to it one day but get off my back”. Because the truth is there are a ton of reasons for the State’s lagging vaccination numbers. And as The West Australian discovered when it took a deep dive into the local government areas (LGAs) where holdouts were highest, anti-vax conspiracy theories were not primary among them. Yes, some do have questions and health concerns. But most of the unvaccinated haven’t written off getting the jab. They just haven’t got around to getting answers yet. What we discovered were normal West Australians still living in a largely pre-COVID world, preoccupied with the normal rhythms of their lives in a way that much of rest of Australia can only envy. Most would call that complacency, but residents in Toodyay, Kwinana, Chapman Valley and Coolgardie — among the State’s least-jabbed locations — told us they did not feel any urgency to roll up their sleeves because the Premier’s “crush and kill” strategy including border closures was enough to keep them safe at the moment. Some say they feel no need to get jabbed until the border reopens — a Catch 22 for Mark McGowan who has said he won’t open up WA until more people are vaccinated. Others cite the inconvenience of booking a jab for their failure to do so, or previous supply issues, or that they are too busy, or can’t take a day off work if they suffer any side effects, or that it is not mandated for their work so there’s no rush, or that they live too far away from a vaccination hub. One woman blamed her expired Medicare card. What seems clear is that there is no carrot or stick to drive the vaccine take-up in the communities we spoke to and that the Government needs a multi-pronged PR campaign to address myriad misinformation as just, from yesterday, 54.7 per cent of people aged over 12 in WA are fully vaccinated . More than half of the population of Toodyay, 80km north-east of Perth, has not yet been fully vaccinated. The issue has become so divisive it’s even been outlawed from the town’s online community noticeboard. In the “interest” of the town’s “sanity”, Toodyay locals were told to refrain from posting about COVID, with the online group’s admin going as far as prohibiting “advertising on where to get vaccinations”. Although the shire’s population of 3851 is greying, it was those in their 20s and 30s who admitted they had been slow to get jabbed. Local Chloe Deering said she would eventually book an appointment but had chosen to wait. The 20-year-old conceded she was “not 100 per cent certain” the jab was safe, but didn’t want to miss out on gaining entry into venues if vaccines became further mandated down the track. She also believed WA had a limited vaccine supply, despite many slots going begging across Perth. Another 20-year-old, Kelly Stevens, who is double jabbed, said people her age weren’t rushing to get vaccinated because it wasn’t mandated by many workplaces. Sharon Johnson had received one COVID jab, but didn’t feel too much urgency because Toodyay was “so isolated” and the borders were closed. Meanwhile, fully vaccinated Shelly Dival said the “fast” jab rollout may have frightened people and Claire Love, who plans to get both jabs, believed “it’s not very Aussie to be forced” into vaccination, adding Mr McGowan’s no COVID policy meant people were taking their time to book appointments. One person who did cite vaccine fear was Gemma Wood, who advocated against the no-jab, no-play movement. She said she would not get vaccinated because her children allegedly had “bad reactions” to childhood vaccines in the past. She said she was “stressed out to the max” because her husband, a port worker, was being forced to have the vaccination and feared people might suffer health complications in several years time. That is despite health experts vouching for the safety of the vaccines approved in Australia. “I don’t agree vax is the way out ... there are better ways, we need to learn to live with it like the flu,” Mrs Wood said while professing to be a “normal person” who volunteered and coached sport and not a “crazy conspiracy theorist or hippie”. In Kwinana just 48 per cent of the population have had two jabs. Not even a vaccination hub in the area has been enough to entice people. Amber Medlock, a 19-year-old local, said she wanted to get the vaccine but due to a medical condition with a high risk of blood clots, she didn’t feel it was safe. And 73-year-old Bedelia Gebbie said she too had many doubts over the safety of the jab. “My biggest fear is there’s been so many people that have actually died from blood clots and I don’t want to end up with blood clots,” she said. Meanwhile, Jacob Massey, 22, said he’d done the right thing by the health of his family in the past and was not convinced of the need to get a jab. “I’m not going out and spreading things. I stayed at home in lockdown, I wore my mask, I didn’t go out or cough on grandma, I did the right thing and I think I deserve the right to choose who gets to stick a needle in me,” Mr Massey said. “I know they give you a cookie at Subway when you get vaccinated, but not even a free cookie would change my mind. It’s my choice at the end of the day.” And Kerry De Swardt, a 29-year-old mother from Wellard, said she had heard the vaccine affected women’s menstrual cycles. There is currently no scientific evidence linking period problems with vaccinations. “I was booked to have my first dose but then I decided to delay it because I heard that some women were having issues with their periods after getting their Pfizer vax,” Ms Swardt said. “I just want a bit more clarity about it all.” One of the lowest-vaccinated local government areas is Chapman Valley 30km north-east of Geraldton. As of Sunday, seven out of 10 people in the shire of 1179 had still not been double jabbed. And WA’s bumper harvest could mean further delays, with farmers who have waited to get the COVID jab now struggling to find the time. Some rural residents said the 30-minute drive into Geraldton for being too inconvenient and others said they were still cleaning up from cyclone Seroja. Grain farmer Calvin Royce has struggled to fit an appointment into his schedule, saying: “I had heard there was a clinic in Northampton at one stage, and I tried to look them up but I couldn’t find any information. “They seem to be relying on us going into Geraldton which I try to avoid like the plague. “If there was someone that would come to us that would certainly make my life a lot easier.” Admitting he had been a bit complacent about getting jabbed, Mr Royce said he now couldn’t afford to take a couple of days off work if side effects from the vaccine made him sick. Shire president and Yuna farmer Anthony Farrell stressed his community wasn’t “anti-vax” and had simply been preoccupied with the clean-up from tropical cyclone Seroja and a busy farming season. Mr Farrell, who has received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, said getting a jab would be at the back of farmers’ minds with what was predicted to be one of the biggest grain harvests in years. “I’ve heard it’s been a pain in the a... to book an appointment,” he said. “It’s a time thing — once harvest starts it will get put on the backburner.” Mr Farrell said the State Government missed an opportunity to hold a pop-up vaccination clinic at the well-attended Chapman Valley Show last month. Meanwhile in Coolgardie, a half hour drive from Kalgoorlie, just 33 per cent of people had received both jabs. The Indigenous community also appeared to have fears about the vaccine and would feel safer if an Aboriginal vaccine hub was set up in town. One woman said she did not feel comfortable getting vaccinated through the local WA Country Health Service clinic — which only operates twice a week at the town’s health campus. Others in Coolgardie said they did not trust the State Government or the vaccines. They said they would put their trust in a range of unverified and unscientific treatments such as urinating on their feet if they get infected with the virus.