Now the alternative paradise is struggling to balance its love for both personal freedoms and the collective good in the middle of a global pandemic with cases spreading on its borders.Covid-19 fragments were found in the Byron sewage systems on the weekend, a warning of undiagnosed infections, just hours after the nearby town of Lismore was locked down to prevent an outbreak.A parent and child had returned from Sydney bringing the virus to the region which has among the lowest vax rates in NSW. On Sunday it was confirmed the virus had spread in Lismore and local paediatrician Chris Ingall fears it is a sign of things to come.“The opening up of the state is inevitable and we are going to be awash with Covid by Christmas, maybe before then,” Dr Ingall said.“Here we have pockets who won’t vaccinate. Look anywhere in the world and see what happens in those communities.”“There may be a miracle, but the likely thing is they will be hit hard.”Dr Ingall has worked for decades in the Northern Rivers and has battled against antivaccine sentiment the entire time.Just one third of Lismore’s population is fully vaccinated and 62 per cent have had one dose.Lismore itself is full of masks and pro-vaccine people, the doctor said, but the hospital takes in towns including the “actively anti-vax” Mullumbimby and Nimbin.So far the region has escaped catastrophe but “a drover’s dog could keep the virus out” of warm, sunny, outdoor towns like those in Queensland and northern NSW, Dr Ingall said paraphrasing Labor great Bill Hayden.Dr Ingall said Lismore Base Hospital will have to take in the infected from Mullumbimby once the virus sweeps through – carried by asymptomatic, vaccinated outsiders.“I dearly hope our tsunami is just a ripple but I do worry because of our pockets of low vaccination mean we will cop it differently to other areas,” he said.Neighbouring Byron Shire is faring even worse; just 31 per cent of residents are double dosed and 55 per cent have had one dose.By contrast much of Sydney’s north and west is now above 85 per cent single dose and two thirds fully vaccinated.Byron Shire Mayor Michael Lyon puts the lacking rates down to a lack of supply. He says the shire has been given just 300 doses a week.On the ground the locals’ experiences are mixed; some waited weeks for Pfizer and drove more than an hour to access an appointment in the town of Casino.Others got their dose of AstraZeneca in Byron within a single day.Medical professionals told The Daily Telegraph there were plenty of doses but anti-vaxxers were making fake appointments, forcing them to bin invaluable vaccines.But around town it’s clear there’s a tension between those who support the vaccine and those willing to fight for the “personal choice” to refuse. Graffiti on Byron’s main drag reads “Covid IS A HOAX” while “RESIST TYRANNY” is spray painted on every unguarded wall.Many consider themselves “vaccine hesitant” or point out they would have non-Covid vaccines or take issues with the social controls of the pandemic.Bodily rights, personal autonomy and the rejection of government interference have always been sacred to the counterculture that took root among the palms of the Northern Rivers.“A lot of people who see themselves as the cool kids – the punks – they just don’t like being told what to do by anyone ever,” local lawyer Mark Swivel said. “A large degree of anti-vax sentiment is flipping the bird to the mainstream with both middle fingers – well it’s time for the cool kids to take one for the team.”Daily Telegraph – News Feed latest episodeMr Swivel, who is running for mayor, said alternative lifestyle areas, with long-running vaccine resistance, should have been the focus of NSW Health 12 months ago.“Mullumbimby should have been the top priority for community education,” he said.“NSW Health should be down next to the Jehovah’s Witnesses outside the Middle Pub in Mullum, they should be out IGA with the buskers.”“Don’t just send us a few lame posters.”Tensions boiled over on Saturday when more than 100 protesters filled Byron chanting about “freedom” and waved signs including “SLOW DOWN, CHILL OUT, GET OFF YOUR KNEES” – a reference to the town’s iconic welcome sign.“We aren’t the lucky country anymore,” one woman said, pointing to her shirt that said she was “unmuzzled – unvaxxed – unafraid”.Riot police moved to break up the crowd as it marched past the pubs up to the main beach. A mother with a child on her breast screamed as her husband was led away.“This is a communist regime forcing people to have the jab without their choice,” Joy Price said.Ms Price, a Queenslander, told The Daily Telegraph she had been trapped south of the border for weeks.“This is the new world order, I’m worried my doctor says I have no choice but have to get the jab,” she said.Ms Price was taken away after joining a group who confronted officers accusing them of violating human rights, the constitution and being “part of a corporation”.Louella, who refused to give her last name, said she watched on the mainstream news that most people dying of Covid-19 in Sydney were fully vaccinated.That has never happened. “I don’t want to put that poison in my body,” she said.“It doesn’t protect people. I know my body, my immune system can deal with it. The vaccine may kill me – it kills.”Louella said she was 66 and had lost family because they can’t tolerate her views on the vaccine.Schoolteacher Jess Smythe rejected the protesters as just a “noisy minority” filling a vacuum left by government failures.Ms Smythe, who is also running for council, said much of the hesitancy and noise in Byron could be sheeted home to a long running sense of disengagement and distrust.Where some see conspiracies Ms Smythe sees “Scott Morrison’s failure on hotel quarantine” and Gladys Berejiklian’s failure to reach pockets of sceptics.“It would be devastating if there was an outbreak here,” Ms Smythe said.“Covid would easily spread here and many of the people who don’t believe in vaccines, they’re vulnerable people.”Byron is no longer the freewheeling hippie hide-out many stereotypes would suggest, locals insist.In reality it’s Teslas, Malibu-style mansions, backpackers and influencers mixing with fewer and fewer ‘old Byron types’.A poster near the pub reads “RANGE ROVERS RUINED PARADISE”. Many in the region identify Mullumbimby as the true epicentre of resistance. One unmasked Mullumbimby woman said she had been named and shamed online after going to a fruit shop without a mask. She called it discrimination that “made me feel like a criminal”.Another said QR codes were an attempt at social control.Not all in “Mullum” were unmasked, though masks aren’t very common, and not all believed the vaccine did not work.But the consistent position in Mullumbimby is that restrictions on the unvaccinated should not be tolerated and would be met with “mass resistance”.One young man compared vaccine passports with Nazis forcing Jewish people to identify themselves.NSW’s north is very diverse; roads cut through sugar cane farms, retiree communities, McMansion developments, weatherboard suburbias and alternative communes.“You look at Byron from Sydney and see a glaze applied to the whole place which overlooks the detail and difference,” Mr Swivel said.“It’s really tribalised and hyperparochial.”“The antiauthoritarian steak in this community traditionally unites everybody but this is a test of our capacity to live with the paradox of personal choice and common good.”“This is the fraying of alternative culture.”Hay bales in one farm town have eyes and masks painted on in cartoon style.A few minutes down the freeway “RESIGN GLADYS” has been painted on every concrete pillar.White haired retirees and white haired dogs shuffle past a mural of a nurse in a mask with “THANK YOU” painted in giant letters in Coffs Harbour on the North Coast.In Coffs 67 per cent have had one dose of the vaccine.Ballina, with its own high number of retirees and families, has more than 73 per cent first-dosed which is almost 20 per cent more than Byron shire.Mr Swivel said the vaccine is perhaps the ultimate “team sport”, the biggest global event and most significant act of community in his lifetime.It’s not about division between vaxxed and unvaxxed, he said, but unity across the species.“People who are pro vaccination have been reluctant to speak publicly because of vehement opposition up here,” he said.“Because supporting vaccination is the strongest expression of the idea that personal choice is not the most important thing.”Many worry Byron’s golden run without cases will come to an end as outsiders flood in to the undervaxxed town.“Byron is exposed but it always was,” Mr Swivel said.“Zero Covid was a delusion, the virus was always coming here.”“We should have prepared better and should keep preparing because we probably have enough time to do something about it.”Near his legal office an Extinction Rebellion logo is spray painted symbolising immediate action to address what climate scientists have been saying for years.Next to it is a pandemic-era addition in bold red; CHOICE IS FREE – THIS IS NO CHOICE.“You’re seeing ultimately an expression of deep fear,” Mr Swivel said.“People are projecting onto the vaccine and the virus a loathing of a mainstream that they want no part of.”’TSUNAMI’ ON THE WAYDoctors in Byron Bay and Lismore are bracing for a “tsunami” of Covid cases as low vaccination rates leave the chilled-out counterculture paradise vulnerable to an outbreak.Covid-19 fragments were found in the Byron sewage systems on the weekend, just hours after the nearby town of Lismore was locked down to prevent an outbreak.A parent and child had returned from Sydney bringing the virus to the region which has among the lowest vaccination rates in NSW. Lismore paediatrician Chris Ingall fears it is a sign of things to come.“The opening up of the state is inevitable and we are going to be awash with Covid by Christmas, maybe before then,” Dr Ingall said. “Here we have pockets who won’t vaccinate. Look anywhere in the world and see what happens in those communities.”Just one third of Lismore’s population is fully vaccinated and 62 per cent have had one dose. Lismore itself is full of masks and pro-vaccine people, the doctor said, but the shire takes in towns including the “actively anti-vax” Mullumbimby and Nimbin.“I dearly hope our tsunami is just a ripple but I do worry because of our pockets of low vaccination mean we will cop it,” Dr Ingall said. Byron Shire Mayor Adam Lyon said low vaccination rates in his council area – just 55 per cent of residents have had one dose – were due to a lack of vaccine supply. He said the shire had been given just 300 vaccine doses a week.On the ground the locals’ experiences were mixed – some waited weeks for Pfizer, others got their dose of AstraZeneca within a single day.Medical professionals told The Telegraph there were plenty of doses but anti-vaxxers were making fake appointments, forcing them to bin invaluable vaccines.NAT – Stay Informed – Social Media
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