Vaccine exemptions?

Last week Sue Grey (lawyer) was back at the High Court challenging a “no jab, no job” order on behalf of aviation security workers who lost their jobs at the end of September for refusing the vaccine.

From the video of the court case, Sue Grey described the situation as “these loyal workers have been coerced and bullied to receive a novel mRNA injection”.

I was amused by the video of the judge (Justice Francis Cooke), with a wry smile, asking Sue “Sure, but I think I can safely assume COVID exists, can't I?”. Hooray to the judge for trolling Sue! :)

The government is ramping up requirements for who must be vaccinated to be allowed to continue in their jobs. The list now includes education, healthcare and prison workers. This is, of course, all reasonable. Refusing the vaccine doesn't just affect you but also the people you potentially put at risk.

From my monitoring of the Voices for Freedom emails, they're now promoting the possibility of vaccine exemptions. They've clutched on to the wording of clause 7A in the COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Order suggesting that exemptions will be easy to obtain, and that any “suitably qualified health practitioner” can issue one. They believe that this list would include nurses, midwives, paramedics, doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, and even dieticians, chiropractors, and osteopaths. I'm astounded they didn't include naturopaths in the list!

It would appear though, that in reality exemptions won't be easy to obtain. Happily, the machinations of anti-vaxxers has been anticipated, in a release from Medinz:

This is obviously sensible, though for anti-vaxxers at least, talking them into getting vaccinated is probably an uphill battle. But, with the threat of loss of their jobs on the line, I can only hope that they will see sense.

To get serious for a moment, it's a failing of modern society that mandates are required. The release of vaccines in decades past has been celebrated with people enthusiastically lining up to get them. Getting vaccinated is an act of both personal protection and societal good. Not getting vaccinated is ultimately a personal choice, but choices have consequences and it seems that people want to have it both ways.