Community worker Niqui Yadzi,who moderates the Facebook group Mullumbimby Flattening The Curve,which provides science-based information to counter conspiracy theories about COVID-19,said she fears that if the virus has spread “it’ll rip through the community like wildfire”.
She said that while the sudden lockdown has shaken many into action,until yesterday people were still hugging each other and there were a number of businesses in the area that discouraged masks.
While Byron Bay has been quieter than usual recently due to lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne,nearby townships such as Mullumbimby and Lennox Head had been “heaving”,Ms Yadzi said. On Tuesday,she was pleased to drive through a “dead” Lennox Head.
What really stood out over the past two days was the outrage. This anger is at the notion that a man came from Sydney and “completely disrespected our community”,Ms Yadzi said.
“Even people who are sitting on the fence,or on the other side of the fence” when it comes to vaccines and COVID-safe practices,“are outraged too”,she said.
On Tuesday morning,Byron Shire mayor Michael Lyon revealed the man in his 50s,now being cared for at Lismore Base Hospital,“came up from Sydney in late July,ostensibly to look at real estate”.