OPINION: Anti-vaxers and their contradictory antics ignore the common good

WHAT to do about the anti-vaxers, that is the question. There can be no doubt that opinions are hardening across Europe where those who refuse to take Covid vaccines are concerned. Austria is to make it mandatory to take the vaccine from next February. Germany has decided to ban all unvaccinated people from bars, restaurants and cinemas.

And EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination” within EU countries as the fast-spreading omicron variant darkened forecasts for the weeks ahead and deepened fears of another difficult winter facing us.

There is no doubt that patience is wearing thin where the great majority population is concerned when it comes to those anti-vaxers with their loudly expressed, irrational, protests against all Covid-19 vaccines, culminating in riots again last weekend in Brussels. It followed similar recent riots and protests in the Netherlands, Vienna, Italy, Croatia, and a march of 2,000 in Dublin, all unmasked and crowded together.

Increasingly, the view is growing that these people have been indulged for too long. It is likely this new fast-spreading omicron variant will bring matters to a head and an end to our democratic tolerance for these fanatics and their passion for their own personal freedoms above the common good.

It will be next week before scientists can be definitive about this new omicron variant and its properties but they are already agreed on one of its characteristics – that it is highly transmissible. They say it is up to 10% more transmissible, even, than the delta variant which is the dominant one here and across the world just now. It is only a matter of time before the omicron variant displaces delta as the most dominant across the world.

What remains uncertain is how severe it is on people’s health and to what degree current vaccines are effective in curbing it. Indications to date are that its effects may be mild but, even then being more transmissible, far more people will become infected with it leading inevitably to an increase in hospitalisations and admissions to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) with the statistical certainty, based on numbers alone, of an increase in Covid deaths, particularly where the more vulnerable are concerned.

Given that context it is inevitable people will find it increasingly difficult to tolerate the anti-vaxers and their antics, not least given how riddled with contradictions their stance is anyhow. Some already take the flu vaccine annually but, more significantly, all have been vaccinated as children against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, meningitis, whooping cough, measles, mumps, etc, etc, etc. Why no objection to those vaccines, then, since or now?

They’ve been living in the same world as the rest of us where the Covid vaccines have been seen to work, and work very effectively, in reducing death rates from the virus across the world and in protecting those most vulnerable, who had been its greater casualties in the pre-vaccine days of last year. The anti-vaxers simply refuse to accept the evidence right in front of their eyes. Why should we be expected to put up with that?

Misinformation about the effects of the vaccines on male and female fertility, as well as on pregnant women, have all been exposed as nonsense again and again but they still choose to believe otherwise. It’s crazy.

Currently about 7% of the population here in Ireland remains unvaccinated, the lowest in Europe. Yet that 7% has the capacity to re-infect us all and overcrowd our hospitals and ICUs.

According to HSE figures these unvaccinated account for more than half our ICU admissions, currently. A total of 28% of the unvaccinated in our ICUs during September and October last were born outside Ireland.

Many of them are from Eastern Europe where the vaccination uptake remains comparatively low. According to the HSE, vaccine uptake rates among those from Central and Eastern Europe in Ireland is also low, averaging about 44% in October.

This is reflected in the vaccine uptake in their own countries. For instance in Poland 53.9% of the population is vaccinated. In Croatia that figure is 47.7%, in Lithuania 63.4%, in Slovakia 46.1%, in Slovenia 54.7%, in Hungary 59.3%, and the Czech Republic 59.6%. It is believed the lower uptake in those countries is rooted in lingering suspicion of the public authorities, a characteristic of those countries since the fall of communism.

Another factor may be religion, particularly among pro-life Catholics, even though Pope Francis has issued a statement strongly supportive of the vaccines. Then, where more die-hard traditional Catholics are concerned, Pope Francis is the anti-Christ (being too liberal in their eyes).

For instance Catholicism is the majority Christian denomination in Poland (87%), Croatia (84%), Lithuania (75%), Slovakia (62%), Slovenia (57.8%), Hungary (56%). In the Czech Republic 21% of the population is Catholic. The Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in Europe and has comparatively few practising Christians or followers of other religions.

There were concerns last year, among pro-life Catholics particularly, about the possible use of aborted foetal cells in developing Covid vaccines. As such speculation grew, a Vatican statement last December stated that, where no alternative is available, it was “morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted foetuses in their research and production process.”

That document also pointed out that “from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one's own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good.” This latter point – concerning “the common good” – seems to be of no concern for the anti-vaxers.

Addressing directly those who refuse vaccines on conscience grounds, the Vatican document said that, regardless, such people “must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behaviour, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.”

Since December of last year it has been clarified that mRNA vaccines, such as those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, are synthetic and do not use foetal cell lines in their production. A replica cell line from a foetus aborted in 1973 was used to develop the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine. However, the vaccine itself does not contain foetal cells.

In other words, those pro-life people and others who object to taking the Covid vaccine on moral grounds related to aborted foetuses have no basis whatsoever for taking that stance and are even rejecting the advice of the Catholic Church on the matter.

In truth there is no moral basis for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid and very many moral arguments for making sure you get vaccinated, and as frequently as required, not least in the interest of one’s own health but also in the interests of the common good and particularly to protect “the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable,” as that Vatican document of December 2020 put it.