It’s Time for Gladys Berejiklian to Stand Down

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian recently declared that she does not want to be “anywhere with someone who’s not vaccinated”.
 
She continued by saying that it’s “just my personal choice and people will make those personal choices”.
 
This follows her previous comments that she “wouldn’t want to be in the room with lots of people who aren’t vaccinated” and that she hopes that “all of our colleagues (parliamentarians) are vaccinated”.
 
These sound like comments from a child, not the leader of New South Wales. These comments are divisive and discriminatory, and they have no place in Australian society.
 
Let’s take a look at the why.
 
A Wisconsin study found “no difference in viral loads when comparing unvaccinated individuals to those who have vaccine “breakthrough” infections. Furthermore, individuals with vaccine breakthrough infections frequently test positive with viral loads consistent with the ability to shed infectious viruses… Our results, while preliminary, suggest that if vaccinated individuals become infected with the delta variant, they may be sources of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to others.”
 
Meanwhile, a Singapore study showed that “PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values were similar between both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups at diagnosis, but viral loads decreased faster in vaccinated individuals”.
 
A CDC study found that “real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) cycle threshold (Ct) values in specimens from 127 vaccinated persons with breakthrough cases were similar to those from 84 persons who were unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated, or whose vaccination status was unknown”.
 
And finally, a Vietnam study demonstrated that “viral loads of breakthrough Delta variant infection cases were 251 times higher than those of cases infected with old strains detected between March-April 2020… Breakthrough Delta variant infections are associated with high viral loads, prolonged PCR positivity, and low levels of vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies, explaining the transmission between the vaccinated people.”
 
Ms Berejiklian, if you can still catch COVID-19 and pass it onto others when you are fully vaccinated, how are you protecting yourself by not being “anywhere with someone who’s not vaccinated”?
 
It is time you stop acting like a tyrant and start acting like a leader. Leaders unite people and bring communities together. Your comments are abhorrent and demand an immediate apology.
 
However, Ms Berejiklian didn’t finish there.
 
“I just want to make this point very clear: if people want to enjoy the things we have missed such as a meal or any other issue, or any other venue, they’re going to have to be vaccinated.”
 
“We have to accept, especially between 70-80 per cent, that for any given time… it’s in the interests of the business venue or the facility not to have an outbreak. That’s why it’s in the businesses’ interest to prevent that from happening, to make sure they don’t allow people coming in who aren't vaccinated, because that will impact their business continuity.”
 
“Many people may still not feel safe at that stage, knowing that there's still a high rate of unvaccinated adults.”
 
Dr Nina Pierpont, who has a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a PhD from Princeton University, published an excellent paper titled ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Are Now Pointless: Covid-19 vaccines do not keep people from catching the prevailing Delta variant and passing it to others’.
 
In her article, Dr Pierpont stated that there is “excellent scientific research papers published or posted in August 2021 (which) clearly demonstrate that current vaccines do not prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”
 
“On the way to herd immunity, there is an assumption that people who are immunized can form safe clusters or groups within which no one is carrying or transmitting the virus… Unfortunately, this last assumption is no longer true under the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, Delta (B.1.617.2), which now accounts for essentially all cases worldwide.”
 
“From its origin in India, Delta has soared to nearly complete domination of COVID-19 viral strains everywhere in a matter of months, because it spreads so easily and infects both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”
 
Dr Pierpont explains that “viral loads are much higher in people infected with Delta than they were in people infected with Alpha” and that “viral loads with Delta are equally high whether the person has been vaccinated or not.”
 
However, the following statements by Dr Pierpont are the most damning.
 
“Due to evolution of the virus itself, all the currently licensed vaccines (all based on the original Wuhan strain spike protein sequence) have lost their ability to accomplish vaccine purpose… To keep people from carrying the infection and transmitting it to others.”
 
“Vaccine mandates are thus stripped of their justification, since to vaccinate an individual no longer stops or even slows his ability to acquire and transmit the virus to others.”
 
Dr Pierpont concludes that “given all the above evidence, mandating others to take a vaccine is a potentially harmful, damaging act”.
 
The NSW government, under Gladys Berejiklian’s leadership, not only refuse to follow the evidence, but are now creating a two-tier society of the good and the bad, the superior and inferior, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
 
Abandoning liberty and democracy for tyranny and fear will only further divide the state and the nation. Separating Australians into two distinct classes of people has no place in our society, and it simply will not be tolerated.
 
Ms Berejiklian, it’s time for you to stand down as Premier of New South Wales. The state and the country deserves better.

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