PARENTS must provide proof of their child’s immunisation status just to get in the front door of a childcare centre.
It’s an accepted mandate that helps protect our children, and therefore the wider Australian population, from diseases such as Meningococcal, Rotavirus, Measles, Mumps and Rubella.
We can’t travel or return from certain countries without vaccinating against certain diseases.
Like them or not, vaccine mandates work, and have done so in varying degrees across the world for many years. They’re nothing new.
About a month ago, US President Joe Biden announced plans to require COVID-19 vaccinations – or, in some cases, weekly testing as an alternative – for most US workers. There were immediate doomsday predictions that the move would backfire, and stiffen vaccine resistance. Surveys even suggested as many as half of unvaccinated workers would quit their jobs rather than take their shots.
But such threats are proving mostly empty in the US.
According to the New York Times, vaccine compliance to the order has been high, and only a relative handful of workers have quit or had to be fired.
Victoria is now going through a similar experience after Premier Daniel Andrews announced last week that all authorised workers must be vaccinated for COVID-19.
This week, Federal Member for Mallee Anne Webster launched a petition to have the vaccine mandate rule dropped in Victoria, labelling it an “overreach”, and claiming thousands could walk away from the jabs in protest, or just be out of a job because of it.
Dr Webster, who for the record is pro vaccine and fully vaccinated, argued Mr Andrews “crossed an important line” in using threats to drive up vaccination rates.
But did she really expect the Premier would use a carrot instead of a stick here to whack these remaining unvaccinated workers into line?
The Premier likes his stick. He has been using it for 18 months to manage this pandemic.
But, ironically, it is those who are tired of the stick and desperate for the carrot of freedom – weary and double-jabbed Victorians – who are OK with the fact he has wielded it here.
New York gave about 600,000 healthcare workers until this last week to get a COVID-19 jab or lose their jobs.
Again, that threat was met with predictions that doctors, nurses and other staff would quit en masse rather than allow a needle to compromise their liberty. They’ve chosen instead to do the right thing.
Thousands got their shots and, as of this week, 87 per cent of New York’s hospital workers were fully vaccinated – up from 77 per cent in mid-August.
About 92 per cent of hospital staff have received at least one dose, as have about 92 per cent of nursing home workers and 89 per cent of adult care workers.
The point is that most vaccine resistance isn’t about deep concerns, not many hold the belief that they will be microchipped by the government or other such conspiracy theories.
It’s more about an assertion of rights, a self-interest priority over the public interest.
As has been proven in the US, though, resisters fold when it becomes about self-interest. When it becomes about their own financial wellbeing. What now, I’m going to lose my job? Where do I line up?
Let’s face it, we have been forced to endure a lot worse over the past 18 months than getting a jab.
Most of us have been motivated to get vaccinated by the carrot of our health and our freedom. If it takes the stick to get the remaining percentage to get it done, then so be it. We’ve got our lives to get on with.
