Do you trust God or trust "the science"?

Throughout the world, there is a question that is plaguing the mind of mankind: should I take the COVID-19 vaccine?

Recently, Iran took the bold step of banning any US or UK made vaccine, labelling the Western powers “untrustworthy”. Before we mock their decision, they may have good reason based on a little-known scandal from the 1980’s involving France. In the mid-80’s, Laurent Fabius served as Prime Minister of France. During his tenure, it was discovered that France’s national blood transfusion centre knowingly distributed HIV-contaminated blood products. Sadly, this led to the death of several hundred hemophiliacs in France. When the scandal was exposed, several doctors and politicians were brought to trial, including Fabius. However, he was cleared of all charges. The tainted products were also exported to several foreign countries, including Iran, where several hundred patients were contaminated. Iranian health authorities claimed that this led to the very first cases of AIDS in the country.

The Australian Government has now announced the vaccine rollout in our country will begin in mid to late February 2021 using a rolling system, beginning with frontline workers and the elderly and ending with all adults. Those under 18 will not receive the vaccine on the basis that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has not approved the vaccine for use in children. The Government has repeatedly claimed that the vaccine will not be mandatory (contrary to Scott Morrison’s earlier gaffe that “they would be as mandatory as possible”).

Now, before we go any further, it must be said that I am not here to tell you whether or not to receive the vaccine. The way you choose to administer your healthcare is your choice (take note Mr Morrison). What I seek to address are the underlying reasons for the fact that many people are hesitant to take the vaccine and instead of deriding those people as fringe lunatics and anti-vaxxers, the Government simply needs to address each concern with the truth – no propaganda (as the Government is prone to do) – the truth. Because the more the Government tries to run this operation as a marketing strategy (remember Scott Morrison was the managing director of Tourism Australia for a time) the more distrustful the population are going to become.

It seems that people have reason to be cautious. Governments all over the world are telling us to “trust the science” but secretly, nations are using other peoples as vaccine guinea pigs in order to study the effects. On 20 August 2020, The Australian newspaper ran a story reporting that a Chinese mining company in PNG claimed to have immunised its employees against COVID-19 as a trial, much to the fury of the PNG Government. Then there were reports that Iran and Cuba are testing vaccines on each other’s population. Further, I’ve written previously on the fact African Americans are notably hesitant to take a vaccine from their own Government on the basis of the black community’s distrust of ruling authorities after the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment from 1932 to 1972. It was only in 1997 that then President Bill Clinton apologised for the experiment, saying: “The United States government did something that was wrong – deeply, profoundly, morally wrong.” And here’s the thing – people who believe that the Government will only ever do the right thing are foolish. Governments will do wrong – sometimes deliberately and sometimes innocently. But if you believe that Government will never do anything to harm you and is only there for your good then I have bad news for you: the Government has become your god.

Next week we will visit a dark chapter in world history and how defenseless men and women were used as medical guinea pigs by ruling authorities.