The Bradzter
Have you experienced hate, abuse, insults or all of the above lately? Chances are that you have, regardless of which side of the fence you sit on when it comes to vaccination choice.
We are experiencing a pandemic of fear. This fear is driven by the top levels of our government. This fear is breaking apart families, friends and workplaces and tearing the very fabric of our society apart. I don’t blame anyone for being fearful. Our government has been bombarding us with COVID-19 messaging for 18 months while locking us inside.
I used to run a business and learnt a few things about marketing. Have you heard of the advertising rule of 7? Your prospective buyer needs to see your product and hear your message 7 times. The important thing in the rule of seven is not the number, but the message. You need to let the prospect hear and see your marketing message so many times before they buy it.
There are many reasons for the need for repetition. Buyers just can’t trust you and make the buying decision the first time you show your message. Our government has taken the rule of 7 and turned it into 700. It is in our radio, TV, internet ads and mainstream news media, and the list goes on. You can’t escape the message to ‘Get Vaccinated’. This message worked for a bunch of people. I’m going to break the state of the nation into three groups.
- The group that willingly went out and got vaccinated as the vaccine became available
- The hesitant group that wanted more data, but were ‘coerced’ into getting vaccinated
- The unvaccinated group.
Let’s dive into each group. Note these are stereotypes: not everyone fits into a ‘box’, so to speak.
The Willingly Vaccinated Group
The willingly vaccinated group all have different reasons for getting vaccinated. Perhaps they are in the at-risk groups and wanted to protect themselves, or have loved ones that are at risk and did it without question. Some of this group wear the vaccination status as a badge of pride. This is fine to a certain extent. You have done your bit and probably feel others should too. There are some die-hard fans of the government in this group. They are terrified of COVID-19 and believe that the government has saved them once before and can do it again. They normally consume a lot of mainstream media if they are in the diehard group. They know about Jacinda’s wedding plans and what Clarke texts Jacinda daily. This group fears the unvaccinated, COVID and whatever the media has told them.
The Coerced or ‘Just Did It’ Group
Some people didn’t think twice about getting vaccinated. Maybe they did it on their lunch break? They probably find this whole argument bizarre. This group is very diverse. There are a bunch of people who probably weren’t going to do it but the government has used fear and threatened to take away a bunch of human rights including freedom of movement, participation in society, concerts, gym, pubs and even job and income. This group can be neutral in the situation; they may be on either side of the fence when it comes to the arguments facing New Zealanders today.
The Unvaccinated Group
There are plenty of adverse reactions out there regardless of what Medsafe reports: the Medsafe website says that 95% of reactions go unreported. Speaking from personal experience I know of at least four serious adverse reactions and another four reactions involving heart function that never got reported but that I would consider serious. Anyone in the unvaccinated group hearing these stories will naturally be fearful, regardless of the constant messaging of the government. This group tends to already distrust the government and, when bombarded with messaging, start to question the narrative. People in this group have also done their own research, which of course is frowned upon by the one narrative media. There is a lot of questionable data overseas, the media is not being honest and this reinforces the idea that there is something very sinister going on. This group now fears the government more than COVID-19.
OK so now we know the groups. We know we have a lot of middle ground people but we also have extreme pro-vax and extreme anti-vax. The common ground for all these groups? FEAR.
We fear different things yet thanks to this government:
- The unvaccinated are now the source of fear for pro-vax people as well as the reason they can’t move freely (apparently)
- The government is now the source of fear for anti-vax people
- Now we have both sides getting angry after feeding on their own fears
- The yelling matches begin. Friendships end. No one wants to listen to the other side. However, we are all scared.
None of this is natural. We have been totally divided by this government.
What we need now is unity.
We need to compassionately listen to each other’s side. If we can’t agree we need to let it go.
We need to stop looking at each other as the problem.
We need to look at our leaders and ask them why they are doing this to us?
I believe the middle ground group really needs to step up and say enough is enough. The extreme groups at each end are achieving nothing.
This is my personal plea to our government…
- Stop the fear mongering
- Stop the division
- Let us take personal responsibility
- Treat us as adults
- Let us go back to being normal laid-back Kiwis
- Let us visit our friends and family
- Let us enjoy summer.
This isn’t going to happen until you take a step back and let us live our lives. We want to move on.
The time for fear is over.