Tuesday, 16 November 2021

COVID-19 vaccination

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (23:22): (1639) My adjournment matter is, as usual, for the Minister for Health. My office has been flooded with calls complaining about difficulty in getting a vaccine exemption. The story is often the same: the doctor recommends against vaccination because of a person’s individual circumstances making it a bad idea, but the doctor refuses to provide a written exemption. The doctors say their hands are tied. They can only issue exemptions in extremely narrow, externally prescribed circumstances or else they will lose their registration. Despite what the government may want you to think, there are many reasons people may seek exemption. A common reason is that you have already acquired immunity somehow else. People who contract COVID-19 develop an immune response that protects them from future infections, at least for a time. We have heard many cases where doctors have told patients to avoid or delay vaccination because of exposure to COVID-19. Should these patients be required to ignore the advice of their doctors in order to participate in public life?

Some people have immunity from vaccines, but the government refuses to recognise it. Many people, mostly returned travellers, have received vaccinations other than the few that are available in Victoria. They are unable to have these vaccines recognised by Australia’s immunisation register and therefore are unable to work. There is even a vaccine developer in South Australia who is unable to get an exemption for his own vaccine despite the fact it has been approved for use in foreign countries, and he will be sacked from his job. Then there are a whole host of people for whom vaccination is unusually risky, such as people who have had severe reactions to their first dose. Every time the government shoots down a valid concern it gives more fuel to conspiracy theories. People start to wonder: if COVID immunity is not a valid excuse to get an exemption from vaccination, what is the purpose of vaccination? They think: if vaccines are about health, why is the risk of a likely anaphylactic reaction not a valid cause for an exemption? We are hearing story after story from people with these exact concerns who are told by their doctors that their concern is valid but they are unable to provide an exemption regardless.

The government has even gone so far as to send police to raid clinics of doctors who have been issuing exemptions. I call on the minister to allow doctors to use their professional and expert opinions as the basis for providing an exemption to COVID-19 vaccination requirements. One of the government’s lines is that we must all get vaccinated for the sake of those who cannot get vaccinated, but in the very next breath the government turns around and brands these very people who cannot get vaccinated as dirty anti-vaxxers and wants to destroy their lives.