Unvaxxed by Dyani Lewis

The second book in The Crikey Read series, Unvaxxed, is written by award-winning science journalist Dyani Lewis and is a nuanced, timely look at vaccine hesitancy and how uncertainty and misinformation have influenced the Australian experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past few years the realities of lockdowns and the erosion of trust in government and authority have fed into a small but significant history of anti-vaxxing in Australia that has found unlikely bedfellows in the QAnon conspiracy cult, white supremacy movements and the wellness community. The genie is out of the bottle – what do we do now?
In Unvaxxed Lewis tries to make sense of who makes up the few per cent of people who haven’t been vaccinated. Are they scared, complacent, stubbornly refusing vaccination? Or are they anti-vaxxers, actively promoting misinformation to recruit people into their fold?
Throughout the pandemic the great unvaxxed are painted as selfish free-riders, relying on the goodwill and compliance of the rest of the community so that they can shirk their communal responsibilities. But what are their actual motivations for refusing vaccination?
To answer this, Lewis examines whether vaccine mandates work, or do they simply hasten the erosion of trust and the spread of different kinds of ‘truth’ on the subject of vaccines and looks at the actual first-hand human fallout from vaccine refusal for families split over the issue.
Interweaving personal experience and first-hand narratives from those on the frontlines alongside smart, perceptive and compassionate commentary on the scientific and sociocultural effects of vaccine misinformation, Unvaxxed plots a sorely needed way forward for Australia in 2022.