Who are the real vaccine hesitants? Joe Biden, et.al.

Video here. Vaccine efficacy figures start at 4'30"

Who are the real vaccine hesitants? Answer: Joe Biden. And some expert virologists and their supporters in the media. 

Why? How? 

Joe Biden, at his presser to announce a plan to Execute an Order everyone to get a vaccine, said two things:

• One: that the vaccines are very safe and very effective. Only one in 160,000 chance for be hospitalised with Covid if you’re fully vaccinated. We are protected against getting the virus, and even if we do get it we won’t be badly affected and extremely unlikely to be hospitalised. Good. Understood. That’s exactly why my family and I are fully vaccinated and have been since as soon as we could.
• Two: that the unvaccinated pose a threat. Well, of course they are a threat to themselves. But, according to Joe Biden, they also pose a threat to we fully vaccinated people. Despite what he said in One, above.

Wha…??! But, Joe, you just said … ?? Like just one second ago…. You just said we were protected from the unvaccinated. So, says Joe, it’s “frustrating” that so many are unvaccinated and pose a threat to the rest of us. And that’s why I’m instituting this vaccine mandate. It makes no sense.

So, I reckon: if you tell the American people that the vaccine is great and safe and effective but then in the very next breath tell them that even vaccinated they’re in danger from their unvaccinated neighbour, then you’re the one who doesn’t believe in the effectiveness of the vaccine. You’re the one who’s vaccine hesitant. Either that or your guilty of the greatest self contradiction ever.

I add to this dogs breakfast of a mixed message the Sydney Morning Herald. It ran an article on September 9th titled: 'One person's freedom is another person's going to hospital'. This is the grossest of scaremongering, not to mention flat out wrong. 

What's the story? 

NSW Premier Gladys Bereliklian plans a phased opening up when vaccination rates reach 70%, and everyone has had the chance to be vaccinated. To repeat: everyone has had the chance to get a free jab. Only those who don’t want to, or can’t, for whatever reason, will remain unvaccinated. And those that are vaccinated, as Joe Biden tells -- relying on expert data -- are very safe. Good oh, right? Well, no. The Herald quotes an epidemiologist Professor Alexandra Martiniuk expressing “surprise that some restrictions are being lifted…even for the double jabbed”. But why, given the high level of protection that even Joe Biden has stressed. Martiniuk says this is “prioritising industry over public health”. This is a particularly crappy take, demeaning as it does, the noble effort to offer products and services to the public, often critical, who provide employment to many millions, and who support their family in the process. Public policy is all about about balancing risks and needs, balancing the needs of industry against the needs of public health, with neither being ignored and neither given exclusive reign.

I’ll bet Professor Martiniuk has never had to meet a payroll. She may well not know what the phrase means. To those of us who have done so, it's a visceral part of life. Only someone who doesn't know it would hurl abuse at Premier Berejikilan for trying to return to some semblance of normality with most of our population vaccinated — and therefore safe! 

It is true that some hospitals appear to be "under pressure". We were told this from the beginning of the pandemic. In the UK, Italy, the US.  Emergency measures were brought in. They were not used. No the USS Hope hospital ship in New York, not the Nightingale hospitals in England. What these did, though was show us that the surge capacity was there. And that was then, when we had no vaccine. And the waves of virus were much higher. Today we have the viruses and the waves are lower. I'm going to bet that once again our hospitals cope, or that surge capacity comes on stream. While the number getting vaccinated is steadily rising, bringing greater protection, as Joe Biden has stressed.

So, for goodness sake let’s follow this science! Let's listen to Joe! Vaccines do work. We can open up. All the rest -- the panic, the talk of hospital meltdowns -- is sound and fury, signifying confusion. 

ADDED: Two Sydney Morning Herald articles I consider misinformation:

• Underlying health conditions? That's almost all of us. Dr David Berger, 7th September 2021. Tries to make the argument that we're all at risk. Trivially true, based on anecdote, not data. The data showed from the beginning, and stubbornly continue to show: the average age of death is around 80, most have pre-existing conditions, a major one of which is obesity. Berger's opinion piece only adds to hysteria. Wrong and unhelpful.
• 'One persons' freedom is another person's going to hospital'. 9th September. That's not true, especially for the vaccinated. I call it out as scaremongering.