Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

Good to see!

Australia and NZ rely on the success of our Covid vaccination programs to save as many lives as possible. One unvaccinated person can't do much to harm us but a global household name athlete can.

Thank you, AU govt, for standing firm. #ANZACs 🇦🇺🇳🇿

https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1482787431347032064

So many ironies in this saga, including the fact AU & NZ military personnel served in the Balkans as "peacekeepers" during & after the 1990s wars there.

The current Serbian gov't & expats in AU were vocal in their support of "Novax" Djokovic's recent attempts to break AU laws.

As a New Zealander, I get it. When you have a small country (Serbia 7 M, NZ 5 M) you want to show support for your greatest athletes, especially when they are at crucial junctures in their career.

The pandemic changed everything.

Public health laws have always been available:

People everywhere seem to think that current legal restrictions brought about by this pandemic are something new. Nope.

It's a natural disaster that threatens national security domestically and internationally.

People also seem to assume the term national security means external national defense ie military services. Wrong again.

The constitutional power of exec branches of any type enables a necessary response to natural disasters.

In a pandemic, public health > personal health.

As far as I'm aware, right now no one in any English speaking country is mandated to receive Covid vaccines UNLESS they wish to work in a certain job or travel to certain places within or between countries at certain times.

BTW, Red America, "Vax or test" =/= vax mandate.

If you don't want Covid vaccinations, you are free to choose not to have them.

You are NOT free to choose a certain job or a certain travel option. And no, a previous (confirmed) Covid infection is no substitute and it never has been.

In a pandemic there must be NO special treatment of athletes, VIPs, celebs, politicians etc.

British PM Boris Johnson should already have called a snap election & resigned. The man is insane: He survived a Covid infection so severe he spent 3 days in ICU, but is still ignorant!

I often critique AU PM Scott Morrison (who seems intellectually unfit for office) but fair play to him for taking a tough stance on this.

His immigration minister couldn't have cancelled Novax's visa without prime ministerial support. I'm sure most Australians agree with them.

These are the people on the minds of the AU federal government leadership right now.

Neither AU nor NZ have enough fully staffed ICU beds to ensure that during a high Covid peak no other patient will die because they can't access a bed.

Source: health.gov.au/health-alerts/…

It's not just about deaths and injuries from Covid.

It's about temporarily losing access to life saving medical care for everyone in a country.

That's why I harp on that #HospitalCollapseKills.

I have the benefit of knowing about my pre-existing medical conditions that place me at higher risk of (a) needing a hospital bed at any time and (b) Covid complications.

Many others don't know if they're already at higher risk. Maybe you are?

The impact of Covid on hospitals & all other healthcare services in a country is a large part of the rationale for governments doing everything in their legal power to encourage vaccination & other necessary measures.

AU & NZ have extremely high national vax rates. Well done.

Vaccinations are "necessary but not sufficient."

That's a very important concept in politics, business, and life. Our high vax rates can only do so much. People like Djokovic and his supporters have a range of cognitive distortions about the pandemic...

There is willful ignorance re the science. But there is also a lack of empathy. That's a harsh criticism to make of anyone, but I've gradually faced the fact they're currently suffering from a lack of empathy... it's "treatable" if they are willing, but that depends on insight.

I finally figured out how some people can "forgive" others despite extreme crimes like murder. For me, forgiveness does not mean you think the crime was OK. It means you stop letting them live rent free in your head. I'm talking mainly about people in one's own life, not celebs.

Because we all know of people who hold distorted perceptions about the pandemic that lead them to not have empathy for certain others.

They are, for the moment, unable to feel or show sufficient empathy for others. Often they lack the intellect and wisdom to easily do this.

During this pandemic, hearing about the lack of empathy in certain famous people and those around me has caused me great stress and distress.

I'm turning it around, though. I can "forgive" family and friends because (usually) I know the psychological issues they face.

Public figures, OTOH, usually have the material and other resources to escape the consequences of their poor decisions, while ending up harming large numbers of people in the process.

I tend not to "forgive" them.

So, credit where credit's due. Thank you to every official in Australia that made this visa decision and deportation happen. It was not easy for them to do, but they had the wisdom to understand why it was necessary.

Because public health matters.