Wednesday, 9 February 2022

COVID-19 vaccination

Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (18:09): (1725) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health. According to the COVID live tracking data website there have been about 850 000 cases of COVID in Victoria since the start of November. Different experts have different estimates of how many cases have not been reported, but commonly this is between two and four times what is actually recorded. So possibly around half the state have had COVID in the past couple of months, but without surveillance serology testing we simply do not know the real answer. Either way it is pretty clear that we are on the downslope of the current outbreak, with a population that has a very high rate of protection either through vaccines or through prior infection, yet we are persisting with a segregated society based on vaccine status. For what purpose? It is no secret that I have been opposed to these mandates throughout the pandemic, as I believe they are immoral and of little to no benefit, but even for those who have held a different view and felt they were justified, surely that justification has expired. What purpose are they serving? At this stage it seems like just vindictive cruelty.

Places that people who remain unvaccinated are prohibited from attending include gyms, pools, creative arts premises such as theatres, amusement parks, food and drink premises for dine-in service, play centres and some large sporting and entertainment events. Adult education and higher education premises are also on the list, although pandemic orders create an exemption for activities that cannot be conducted from home. However, I am aware that some institutions are preventing any unvaccinated people from attending campus at all. I have also heard stories of GP clinics refusing to see unvaccinated patients even in the car park—needless cruelty to appease the sensibilities of people that the Premier describes as ‘not wanting to sit next to someone who made the wrong choice’.

What do independent experts think about all of this? Just last week the Conversation published an article titled ‘Is it is time to rethink vaccine mandates for dining, fitness and events?’. They sought the views of five experts: Professor Catherine Bennett, epidemiologist; Associate Professor Holly Seale, social scientist; Professor Julian Savulescu, bioethicist; Dr Katie Attwell, political scientist and vaccine researcher—of the five experts the only one that did not think the vaccine mandate should be reviewed was Dr Attwell, and she was specifically talking about the Western Australian context. My request to the Minister for Health is to immediately revoke the Pandemic (Open Premises) Order 2022 (No 4).