Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Income Thresholds) Bill 2021, and I wish to contribute to the debate. During this debate I've heard members on both sides of the chamber telling people to get injected with COVID vaccines. I believe that unless we are a qualified medical doctor we have no position to tell anyone to take any medical treatment or not to take any medical treatment. All that we should be doing is advising that COVID vaccinations are provided free—that is, they are paid for by the taxpayer out of government revenue, or should I say currently borrowed government revenue—and you should consult with your doctor to make an informed decision. It should not be up to us as members of parliament or anyone else without the medical experience or qualifications or knowledge to be making recommendations as far a drug goes.

What also has concerned me during this debate has been the perpetuation of the myth that, somehow, someone who is so-called fully vaccinated is immune and is totally safe from the COVID virus. We know from data from the USA that that is simply not true. So far, the US data from their Centers for Disease Control—firstly, they note what they call a breakthrough infection, they note that the number of COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections reported to the CDC is likely to be an undercount of all SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated persons. So they acknowledge that data they print is likely to be an undercount. That data shows that, so far, there have been 1,758 people hospitalised in the US specifically because of COVID infections. They have been so-called fully vaccinated. Of that number, 366 people have died in the USA who were so-called fully vaccinated. So the idea that being fully vaccinated gives you some sort of complete protection is a furphy. Yes, the evidence shows it gives you some protection, but it is not 100 per cent protection.

Another furphy being perpetuated is that, somehow or other, high rates of vaccination in a population means that you can open up. Again, let's have a look at what the evidence is showing. From Forbes magazine:

Countries with the highest vaccination rates—including four of—

See this speech in context