There’s a new “highly contagious” Covid Omicron subvariant in town, catchily named NB.1.8.1. Sticking with time-tested tradition, health authorities, experts, and media are playing the ‘cases, cases, cases’ angle, as the latest variant sweeps the nation with what I calculate to be Australia’s twelfth Covid wave since the pandemic scare series kicked off in 2020. “According to Griffith University, the NB.1.8.1 variant makes up over 40% of total COVID cases tested in Victoria, around 25% in Western Australia and New South Wales, around 20% in Queensland and less than 10% in South Australia,” reports ABC.
“There are hundreds of different strains of Omicron, and the new subvariant … is driving up infections and hospitalisations, particularly in Asia and Western Australia,” reports the Daily Mail. But experts are furious that Australians are not vaccinating enough. You naughty, naughty Australians.1 In the past six months, only 6.6% of adults have received a Covid vaccine, according to recent federal figures, despite the vaccines being “free” (i.e., already paid for with your taxes).
Current Australian guidelines suggest adults aged over 75 should get a booster every six months, while those aged between 65 and 74, along with severely immunocompromised adults over 18 years of age, should get one every year. Outside of this, boosters are not recommended but are available to all adults and to children who are severely immunocompromised.2
An online Murdoch media poll indicates three-quarters of their readers just aren’t interested.3 Collective apathy. The failure of this latest scare campaign is unlikely to preclude a thirteenth scare campaign, as the government is generally unresponsive to market feedback, and it has mRNA investments and purchase commitments driving its decision-making (not public health).4
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14763551/Health-expert-furious-Aussies-avoid-getting-Covid-19-vaccine-dropped-ball.html ↩︎
- https://immunisationhandbook.health.gov.au/contents/vaccine-preventable-diseases/covid-19#recommendations ↩︎
- https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/poll-are-you-getting-the-covid-booster-shot/news-story/c569bd418a7aa97b9f80d2f911f49948 ↩︎
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/10/moderna-mrna-vaccine-exempt-advisory-committee-pbac-scott-morrison ↩︎