IN A discussion about the levels of uptake of the Covid vaccine on Radio Ulster’s Talkback on Tuesday, presenter Mark Carruthers pointed out that they’d received a number of calls from people who were wary of being injected.

However, none of them would come on air to discuss their reasons, he said.

I wouldn’t blame them. Such is the febrile, dark atmosphere around the issue of to be jabbed or not to be jabbed, that even people with genuine reservations have been made to feel like pariahs, douchebags who are putting everyone else in danger.

Let me be clear, as all politicians love saying, about my own position on the vaccine.

I’ve now willingly had both my jabs, as has my wife. We both feel safer for doing so.

Neither do I have any objection to being asked to produce written evidence of the fact; a couple of weeks ago, we actually did so when in Malahide and Dublin on a break when eating in restaurants, and when we went into the National Gallery.

Everyone around us maintained safety protocols, and everyone felt relaxed.

All of my kids, now grown up, have had at least one jab and have either had the second one, or it’s booked.

I would commend the vaccination programme and think that the more people of all ages who do get it, the better for society as a whole.

Indeed, figures showing that high percentages of people in hospital were not vaccinated tend to bear that out.

We also wear face masks when appropriate, use hand sanitisers going into shops, and although maybe not washing our hands quite as much as we did at the start, we still do so regularly.

Covid is very real, and we still need to be careful, and respectful of others, and I think everyone should do the same.

These are all my choices in an era very different to anything we’ve known, and in my opinion it’s the best way to get us through it; other people make different choices.

So, no, I’m not in any shape or form with the crazy theories about the vaccine, and find some of the alarmist stuff to be just nonsense.

Right-wing presenter

In the United States, a right-wing TV and radio presenter, Dick Farrel, described Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak who conspired with power-trip lib loons”, and he continually urged his listeners not to get the dangerous vaccine.

Sadly, Mr. Farrel contracted Covid, and died. Before passing away, he admitted to friends he wished he’d got the vaccine.

Notwithstanding all this, there are people who do worry about vaccines, for whatever reason, and it would seem they are being bullied into being made to feel guilty for having their own thoughts on the matter. That is wrong.

And don’t give me the bit about seatbelt laws being a similar argument about personal freedoms; that doesn’t help.

How can you possible equate putting a belt around you in a car, with injecting a relatively new drug into your body?

For whatever reason, there are some people who remain to be convinced that, on balance, it would be better for them and the rest of us if they had their first vaccine.

The key phase there is “to be convinced”, yet what we are seeing is a guilt-tripping environment which is symptomatic of public discourse today.

Following that Talkback programme I referred to, the BBC’s health correspondent, Marie-Louise Connolly, defended the Corporation in a tweet about “anti-vaxxers” not coming on air.

Some of the responses showed the toxicity of the debate. “The anti-vaxxer is happy to spread their lies and misinformation ... rancid individuals ... they have a death wish and are stopping the rest of us going back to pre-Covid lives.”

Others did properly raise concerns about the vaccine being “new technology”, saying there were valid concerns about adverse reactions, and some quoted figures which they suggested proved both vaccinated and unvaccinated were spreading Covid.

Response

I agreed with this response: “I am pro-vax but I wouldn’t attack or belittle people who are trying to understand a complicated world where the same news sources that revealed politicians are liars and cheats are also saying trust the government’s advice. Belittling people makes them dig deeper.”

As ever, Stephen Nolan tends to be the most confrontational. From the time he was filmed shouting at people coming out of shops for not wearing a mask, my perception is that he’s more hostile to people who aren’t on his side of any particular Covid argument.

At the height of the pandemic, there was much talk of a recalibration of our values when we come out of it. We’d have a better society, a kinder attitude to others, and a more tolerant people.

Yet, we’re not seeing much tolerance of those who dissent from the accepted narrative of the majority being handed down by certain media outlets and unelected people in authority who remain unaccountable.

The Daily Telegraph commentator, Daniel Hannan, was reflecting on the retreat of democracy across the world over the last number of years and he suggested: “Britain was spared the worst. Then came Covid, and all at once the country was full of petty dictators.”

Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, as regards Northern Ireland ... perhaps ... but I think it’s worth noting that on Talkback, Dr. Gabriel Scally emphasised that what people need were “authoritative expert voices that people trust advising them”.

Some of the mechanisms for maintaining trust between those in authority and the people they serve are openness and accountability and a robust media which challenges those in power.

Some of our media have done that honourably, and well, in this pandemic.

The Department of Health has faced many questions over its performance in recent years, and rightly so, and as regards the pandemic, the valid criticism of how young people were let down, for example, was highlighted by some at least.

Debate

But the debate over the vaccination programme has shown that the old principle that journalism should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” isn’t always followed.

There have been times when too many journalists were too comfortable in churning out the Government line, and that’s not good for either democracy or journalism.

Sometimes, in a crisis, we revert to a safe position, and that is understandable. As I said earlier, I and many others are playing it safe as Covid is still a major issue, although the positive is that things are so much better, and we are well on the way to coming out of it.

But when we come out of the bunker, we shouldn’t have handed power to those petty dictators who want to control our lives without challenge.