Commentary Assuming we still aspire to live in societies governed by rational standards, we must try to explain the strange reluctance of political and public health elites to acknowledge the harm COVID-19 vaccines have inflicted on many ordinary Australians. Why has an entire section of society embraced the idea that it is OK to throw some unfortunate individuals under the societal bus in the interests of pursuing such abstract goals as “public health” or “herd immunity.” How these lofty but intangible objectives trumped traditional concerns to minimise individual harm caused by medical interventions is a question needing an answer. Originally the medical community and the world drew sustenance from long-standing principles of medical ethics that trace back to the ancient Hippocratic affirmation, “First, do no harm.” In the interests of promoting a humane healthcare ecosystem, when developing new drugs, it was thought essential to pursue two goals simultaneously—maximising benefits for those …