Writer-Counselor-Wellbeing Coach

Tag: covid

Denying care

I'm wondering how many Victorians genuinely support refusing medical care to people who have chosen not to vaccinate and whether they would also refuse care to smokers, drunk drivers, drug users, people who didn't wear their bike helmets, people with flu who didn't have their flu shot.. and the list goes on.

The Premier of Victoria thinks he is the arbiter of who is worthy of medical care and if you've chosen not to vaccinate, you're not it..

Emergency calls for ambulances are being delayed or even unanswered, yet it seems the ambulance service could have a solution; that is to bring back the dozens of staff that have been stood down for exercising their right not to vaccinate. These are the same staff who were lauded as heroes last year, who protected themselves effectively with PPE, who were willing to work to serve the public when there were no vaccines.

One has to wonder if one of these unvaccinated healthworkers calls for an ambulance in an emergency, will their former colleagues refuse them care? Have they abandoned all ethics in order to buy into the absolute lies that the vaccinated are somehow a threat to them even though they've had their double, triple, or soon to be quadruple jab?

What is the backroom talk of the union and its members in relation to this issue? Have they lost all concern for the people in dire need in their communities or do they want an efficient service manned with people who stood by them in the trenches for the last 18 months?

Or are they really so fearful that their 'vaccine' may not be a 'vaccine' at all and they might still get infected, they might still end up in hospital and yes, they might still die.. that in order to maintain the artifice of protection they must villify those who didn't make the same 'choice'?

I guess we will only know by the next steps taken. Will the service fill the vacancies left by staff with decades of experience, with fast tracked students, thereby potentially increasing risk? Or will they reassess their position in light of what they deem to be their own code of ethics: that is to uphold informed consent and a person's right to accept or reject medical treatment without coercion.

Teen cardiac events

This article broke down the figures for reported pericarditis and myocarditis following Covid jabs in 12-17yr olds between September 13, 2021 and October 23, 2021 showing the following:

In the three days between October 24, 2021 and October 26, 2021 there were 75 total reports of pericarditis and myocarditis with 16 of these without an age recorded.

In the 12-17yr age group the breakdown is:

This brings the total reported pericarditis and myocarditis events in 12-17yr olds to 121 in the period 13 September to 26 October: 44 days. An average of 2.75 a day. This excludes those where the age has not been reported.

Without context of how many teenagers in these age groups are receiving vaccines it is difficult to extrapolate the number of excess cardiac events due to the vaccines. We do know that adverse events are generally under reported. We also know that worldwide there has been an acknowledgement of pericarditis and myocarditis being known adverse events.

Common ground?

This morning I was remembering about 25 years ago when I first began to speak publicly about the adverse experiences of women who sought abortion. I wasn't particularly ideologically aligned. I had just seen quite a number of post abortive women in my practice who were expressing some really negative emotions and relaying stories of pressure and coercion that were really disturbing.

I thought, from what I considered my feminist perspective at the time, that this was an overlooked and important area of concern for women.

It didn't take long before I realised that it wasn't overlooked, it was simply ignored, or dismissed, and that among my feminist friends I'd committed a grave error of judgement in bringing it to light. The first concerned caller, a long term friend and colleague wanted to let me know that she was concerned I might be subject to manipulation because of my 'kind nature'. She warned that I should be careful that I don't reframe women's experiences and I should always remind them that their choice was theirs alone. She said she was surprised to learn I held 'those values' as she'd always thought better of me.

When I shared the contents of this call with a mutual friend it turned out that they had actually discussed 'how to handle this' with me. To say I was confused is an understatement. I was the same person I had always been. One of my friends had had an abortion during our friendship and others had talked about past abortions, and neither had experienced any negativity or judgement from me. Now they were overtly accusing me of having been judgemental without disclosing it.

This began a 1 year period of being ostracised and these friendships all completely eroding. I really had no idea what I had done wrong and it was very difficult for me to understand how they had reframed who I was, when in reality nothing about me had changed.

I continued my work in educating about the issues women were sharing with me about abortion and I began researching coercive factors. I remained 'on the fence' about abortion as an act for a number of years in spite of many attempts from different sides pushing me to declare a position.

Over the ensuing years a new group of people were attracted to my work and entered my friendship sphere in varying ways. I was now a little wary though as many of the people were attracted to me because of the focus of my work, yet I was aware that not all of our values were aligned. Sometimes I wondered what would happen if there was an issue on which we disagreed.

The reason I thought about this today is that the exact thing is happening again on the issue of covid vaccines, except in an even more dramatic and pervasive way. People who have reported holding me in high esteem for my work, my values and my empathy toward others have over the past weeks, ridiculed and denigrated me because we have a difference of opinion on what is going on in our world.

This time round it has felt quite devastating. In fact, I realised recently that it has been one of the most traumatising aspects of this whole Covid crisis for me. I think this is mainly because I have been so personally affected by current issues, as have my own children. Yet even knowing that, people I have known for a very long time have little empathy even for me. It is nasty.

At a time when so many of us have struggled through lockdowns and separations from family and the generated fear, we have become so insular that we are not even noticing when we hurt one another. Fear throws us into a fight or flight position and when someone is that scared, it seems instinct kicks in. This is what bothers me.. does this mean that the innate character of people now behaving in hostile or passive agressive "we are just trying to help you" ways are exhibiting aspects of their true character and I just missed it?
Or does fear create something within some of us that is foreign to our character as part of a survival instinct? Whatever the answer is, it adds a further threat to those who are asking questions or directly dissenting to what we believe are unreasonable demands on our lives.

Many of us are fighting for the freedoms of all of us and will continue to do so in spite of the push back. Freedom should be our common ground. As I write those words I remember 25 years ago explaining to my vehemently pro-choice friend that if abortion is hurting some women, isn't that 'common ground' with the 'other side'.

She said "Absolutely not. Some women need to suck it up so that all women have the right to abortion."

I guess that leaves some of us for fighting for something we believe in for ourselves and for everyone, some days even against the very people who we hope will benefit from our battle.

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