Waroona is complacent around COVID-19 jab

Waroona’s complacency and hesitancy around getting the COVID-19 jab is to blame for the town having one of the worst vaccination rates in the State, according to a leading local pharmacist. It was reported last week only 23.3 per cent of the town’s population had received two doses of the vaccine, making it the ninth lowest in WA’s regions. This is despite Waroona being the first location outside the metropolitan area to have a private pharmacy — TerryWhite Chemmart — distributing the jab. Owner Judy Mather said a number of residents had read into misinformation about the virus and the vaccine. “Some people are still sceptical, but I try give them good information,” she said. “We have had lots of conversations with hesitant people and will continue to. “Without people getting the vaccine, it leaves the community very vulnerable.” Ms Mather said the pharmacy could only offer AstraZeneca at the moment and believed people would prefer Pfizer or Moderna, which the facility was also waiting to have distributed once available in the country. Waroona Shire president Mike Walmsley said the virus could be a case of “out of sight, out of mind” for the area. “I think people are comfortable with our freedom and aren’t thinking about COVID,” Cr Walmsley said. “Maybe if we had another lockdown recently, the vaccination rates would have shot up, but Waroona has had a pretty free run.” Cr Walmsley said people were “tuning out” from COVID to protect their own mental health. “It is really hard to get away from COVID, there is constant news stories, every time you turn on the TV it is COVID,” he said. “I think there is a level of COVID apathy going on, and people think, ‘why bother?’.” Cr Walmsley said there was also a stigma attached to the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. “I think people were waiting for the Pfizer, which has not yet come to Waroona,” he said. “I think there has probably been some bad press about AstraZeneca and people are potentially waiting for a different batch.”