‘Byron Bay-type lifestylists’ blamed for low vax rates in inner-city Melbourne
By Chloe Booker and Cara Waters
October 8, 2021 — 7.15pm


Alternative medicine devotees and people shunning certain vaccine brands in suburbs such as Brunswick, Collingwood and St Kilda could be driving down vaccination rates in Melbourne’s inner-city.

The five Victorian local government areas with the lowest first dose vaccination rates are Melbourne (68.3), Yarra (72.5), Darebin (73.5), Port Phillip (74.5) and Moreland (75.2), according to data released by the federal government this week.

Statewide, 83.6 per cent of Victorians have had their first dose, while 54 per cent have had their second.

Dr Daryl Cheng, the medical lead at the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre, said while access, low education, casual work and language barriers were behind earlier low vaccine rates in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, other issues were often at play in well-heeled inner-city areas.

“In the inner-north, in Fitzroy and Carlton, and [other hotspots] ... there are clusters of people who have an alternative belief system or are into alternative therapies, which may mean they have a very different approach to vaccination than the general population,” he said.

Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly said low vaccination rates in his municipality could not be blamed on poor people and migrants as it was overwhelmingly wealthy and educated compared to outer regions.

“City of Melbourne is last, Yarra is second last and other leftie, greenie, progressive heartlands of the professional middle class are near the bottom too,” he said.

“My theory is we have a relatively large cohort of Byron Bay-type lifestylists into alternate medicine who think they know better than the health professionals.

“They go to the gym every day, they have their decaf almond latte every morning, and they think they’re immune.”

Inner-city mayors defended their low vaccination rates, arguing that it was due to young populations.

“Three-quarters of our residents are under 40. That means they only became eligible for Pfizer in August,” Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp said.

Melbourne is the youngest municipality in the state, while Yarra is seventh, Moreland is 10th, Darebin is 15th and Port Phillip is 16th.

The CBD (50-55 per cent), Carlton (40-45 per cent) and North Melbourne (50-55 per cent) had the lowest first-dose rates in the City of Melbourne, which is also the last in the state for double vaccination (38.4).

Cr Capp said the 2019 data was skewed due to the high numbers of international students who had left Melbourne since the start of the pandemic.

Demographer Glenn Capuano, from research firm Informed Decisions, said this was probably true and that Victoria’s total population had fallen by 43,000, with much of it coming from the inner-city.