WHY THE ANTI-VAXXERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS DO NOT DESERVE BALANCE.

It was Monday, December 19, 1988. The day had been overcast and wet and my parents, brother and I went to tea at Sizzler with the inspiration for Redmond Mountford, his wife and younger son. As readers know, Redmond Mountford was a smoker, and in 1988, restaurants were divided into Smoking and Non Smoking sections and we had to sit in the smoking section because Redmond wanted to have a smoke. This wasn’t the first time, and I remember September 5, 1986, we went to tea at the same Sizzler as them and a colleague of my father’s, who was flying back home to Rockhampton that night. Again, we had to sit in the smoking section so Redmond could have three cigarettes in the course of the night.

Later on, smoking in certain venues, such as shopping centres, restaurants and the like, was banned, as was smoking within five metres of the entrance to such buildings.

My maternal grandfather was like Redmond Mountford, in some ways, in that he suffered circulatory problems due to smoking, but he denied that smoking was the cause. I remember him telling me that when he was dating my grandmother, he had to untie his shoelaces when sitting down because he felt the circulation in his feet weaken. I have a high instep, so I can’t tie my shoelaces too tightly, and I used to hate it, when I was a kid and I bought new shoes and the sales clerk would tie the laces too tightly, and I’d have to try to avoid wincing as I walked around to try them out. I tend to find slip on shoes more comfortable.

Being autistic, I have heard all the nonsensical arguments against vaccination, including the repeatedly debunked theory that vaccines, specifically the MMR vaccine, caused autism. I remember, a so-called friend I used to have, wanted me to quit my prescription medications, and take up holistic kinesiology. One of the biggest challenges she had was, she bought a massage table (note, a massage table is designed for you to lie on your front with your head in the hole, not lie on your back with neck support) and as I had a session with her, I couldn’t help but think of my father’s experience where he saw someone who believed, unusually, that everything came from the spine and my father was lying on a massage table and this “healer” had barely touched him for about five minutes, when he got a glimpse through the hole in the massage table to find the “healer” was moving his hands above my father’s back and then shaking his hands, as if to remove dust from them. This former so-called friend, got me to inhale, and then exhale as she clicked her fingers as she moved her hand down towards my feet.

I have seen people claim that not allowing those who do not want to be vaccinated entry to some places is discrimination and segregation and apartheid. Well, those terms are offensive and for obvious reasons. Let’s take, for example, South Africa, where apartheid was practiced. Their policies controlled which facilities you could use, which church you could attend, even who you could associate with or marry. I have heard of some South Africans who have emigrated to be able to marry the person they love.

In the southern states of the USA, segregation was practiced, on a similar scale to South Africa.

One cannot choose or control the colour of one’s skin. Nor can one select their parents or other forebears, but one can choose how they treat others. One does have a choice regarding vaccination, but with those choices come consequences. And those consequences are, have the vaccination and you can have freedom; refuse the vaccination, and one cannot have such freedoms.

In response to anti-lockdown protests, I remember, Monday, May 13, 1991. Just before lunch, we had math, and my math class was divided into four groups. There was one set of tables occupied by some neurotypical girls, who would sit and talk about what the latest celebrity was up to or what their boyfriends did. Another set where a group of boys sat who argued about which car was best, and another group that talked about skateboarding and other such things. Then, I sat up the front. The teacher was trying to teach, and he repeatedly asked for silence but was ignored. So, at lunchtime, he allowed a couple of us, including me, to go out to lunch and he detained the rest of the class. One boy, thinking it was social justice, objected, and said he wanted “something fair”. That provoked from the teacher, a man who seldom raised his voice, a roar of, “You are asking for something fair?! I AM ASKING FOR SOMETHING FAIR!” Had the teacher not differentiated, I would have accepted it. Those protesting against lockdowns are NOT arguing for something fair, rather they are acting in a selfish manner and are spreading not just the disease but misinformation.

We have had one right-wing politician who claimed that masks were ineffective and that HCQ (an antimalaria drug) and ivermectin were effective against COVID19. Such measures are, in reality, dangerous (HCQ is effective with malaria and has been used in cramps and they recommend you don’t drink tonic water while being treated with it). Just like a former car thief said on a lifestyle program, stickers on a car suggesting that you have an alarm are ineffective as a thief will look for flashing lights and see none, and security etching will deter a professional thief but not a joyrider, your best deterrent is an engine immobilser, as they can’t start the engine.

Climate change deniers want climate skepticism taught in schools, and Tone The Botty, the former clown of Australian politics condescendingly told students calling for action that the world has seen worse. I can still remember another fool debating Professor Brian Cox, and all he kept saying was, “Show me the empirical evidence.” While Professor Cox was trying to explain, he kept interjecting with the same nonsense.

It’s one thing to have a differing view, but quite another to have one not based on evidence. If we take the case of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I take the view that Truman’s argument that it could have cost two million lives was a worst case scenario. Had Truman studied his history more carefully, he would have known that Russia, even though it was no longer a monarchy, was still hell bent on avenging the loss of the Russo-Japanese War. Some may argue that the bombings were necessary, yet I take the view that they were neither militarily necessary nor morally justified.

Differing views must be supported by credible evidence, and in the case of anti-vaxxers and climate change skeptics, no such credible evidence exists. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but nobody is entitled to create alternate facts. Facts, if they cannot be proven, are not facts.