Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do these protesters have a point?

Do these protestors have a point? I need to say upfront, I’m not a fan of the protest. I don’t’ like them parking their cars across Molesworth Street, disrupting businesses and hassling punters. Also, I’m double jabbed, and I think giving up your livelihood over the jab is ridiculous. But do they have a point?

Yes, they actually do. 

They insist this is an anti-mandate protest and reporters on the ground there say that does seem to be the case. 

Don’t confuse anti-mandate with anti-vax. For example: I’m pro vax. I’m double jabbed, but I’m anti-mandate. I think kicking people out of their jobs because they don’t have the jab is disproportionate. 

Ask yourself this: what is the rationale now for people losing their jobs because they won’t get the jab? You could argue that they must be punished because they will put a strain on our health system. That was true when we had low jab rates, but we’re now 94% double-jabbed across the country. In Auckland the rates are unreal, 98% of metro Aucklanders are double jabbed. In Wellington it’s the same, 98%. Canterbury, the same, 98% Do we really think a tiny 2% of people is main centers is going to overwhelm the heatlh system? 

Recent research also tells you, a double-vaxxed person is almost as likely to give you covid an unvaxxed person. If a double-jabbed person has covid, they have just as much viral load as the unjabbed person at the height of their illness. And they infect their household members almost just as much. 

This isn’t some whacko research I’m referring to. This was published in the lancet in October last year. 

Furthermore, we’re not dealing with the OG covid anymore. We’re dealing with omicron. It’s so much milder, that a press gallery reporter apparently didn't even know they had it until doing a practice rapid test today. 

So, considering the science here, if you’re jabbed, and the jab doesn’t stop covid spreading or even reduce it spreading much, and there are so few unjabbed among us now: is it really worth kicking cops out of the police force if they don’t want the jab? Is it really worth losing some of the few midwives we have? Is it really worth banning kids from dance classes if their parents don’t want to jab them? 

I think it’s reasonable to ask the government how long they intend to keep these mandates because punishing people for not getting the jab, doesn’t make sense anymore.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.