Vaughan Gunson: Covid-19 coronavirus Delta outbreak - vaccine, masks best defence we have

People lined up for a Covid jab at a vaccination centre. It's up to us to talk to friends and family, workmates and employees about getting vacinated. Photo / NZME

LIFE AND POLITICS

It's increasingly coming down to us. Not the Government, not the Prime Minister, not the Ministry of Health, not border workers, but us.

Whether we think a Covid elimination strategy should be pursued or abandoned, the personal actions we need to undertake are the same.

We must get vaccinated and wear a mask in many public situations.

That's our basic personal responsibility to ourselves, our families and everyone else. Individual safety is ensured by the greatest possible collective action and unity, whatever our political differences over other matters.

When I say it's coming down to us, it's not just about booking a vaccine and strapping a mask around your own ears. It's about talking to friends and family, workmates and employees about doing the same. That's the important thing right now.

Before lockdown, I was surprised that people I knew and worked with were saying they wouldn't get vaccinated. Or were at least reluctant.

I was taken aback at how little they knew about Delta and the danger it posed. Not everyone reads the paper regularly or watches the evening news.

So it's the responsibility of those of us who keep up with the latest information and science to pass on that knowledge to people we know, no matter how awkward or difficult that might be.

People waiting to get a shot in the arm drive-through-style at the Kensington Health Hub vaccination clinic on Friday. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Vaccine hesitancy is the right phrase to use to describe where some people are at. They're not confirmed anti-vaxxers; they haven't categorically ruled out getting a vaccine. But they are getting conflicting information, most likely from social media, and are fearful.

Some people, perhaps because they're not maths inclined, have difficulty assessing risk. Percentages and odds are not everyone's way of thinking about the world and the actions they should take.

Understandably, emotions, feelings, gut reactions to some unknown person putting a needle in your arm can override a calculation about risk.

Rather than acting incredulous - something I know I'm tempted to do - we need to offer a friendly and informative face to those we're trying to persuade. Confrontation and barely concealed judgment isn't going to work.

Somehow, I think laying out the basic maths of the situation to the vaccine-hesitant is still a good strategy.

The risk of an adverse reaction to the vaccine is so small compared to the risk of getting seriously ill or dying from the Delta variant if unvaccinated.

A recent article published in The Australian by respected doctors and infectious disease experts puts the risk of dying from Delta at one in 35. The odds are higher the older you are and lower the younger you are.

Scarily, evidence shows that 10-30 per cent of people across age groups will suffer long-term health effects.

One way of thinking about this is to consider catching a bus with 35 people on it, all of various ages.

That bus has an accident, one person dies, and as many as 10 people are seriously injured. Is that a bus trip you would want to take?

Compare those odds with what we know about the Pfizer vaccine.

So far, nearly two million doses of the vaccine have been administered to New Zealanders.

Information on adverse side effects from the vaccine, even mild ones, like brief nausea, a headache, tiredness, swelling at needle entry, are collated on the Ministry of Health website.

There have been 354 reports of serious adverse effects, mostly in older people. No deaths have been linked to the vaccine.

The very small chance of an adverse reaction from the vaccine can be compared to the almost certainty that if Delta establishes itself in the country, you will get it. It's that contagious.

So, armed with information and a vaccine shot in your arm (the best evidence that it's safe), it's up to each of us to convince the vaccine reluctant to get a jab.

Reach out to your friends and whānau. Let's achieve one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

• Northern Advocate columnist Vaughan Gunson writes about life and politics.