Here is a fascinating, easy to follow summary of the case put before the Indian supreme court by advocate Prashant Bhushan, that a person’s basic human rights gives them the right to refuse the Covid vax, and the state cannot compel them to be vaxxed. The issue is an individual health, not a public health decision. “For an unvaccinated person to be considered a health hazard, I must pose a clear and present danger to others. To eclipse my fundamental rights, there must be first a clear proof that I pose a public danger. Here, even vaccinated people transmit the virus. So, the only issue is my individual health,” he maintained. And in fact, the Covid vax has dangers, even from the perspective of public health: “Vaccines are creating more variants of COVID-19 virus. Mass vaccination creates more variants when the virus tries to escape the effects of the vaccine. Over 90% of the population have already got COVID after the Omicron wave. They now enjoy superior and more robust protection from those who are vaccinated. So why insist on vaccination? I have an absolute right to refuse to take any medicine which I, after study, feel would do me more harm.”
As far as I am aware, this issue did not get to the High Ccourt of Australia. If it did, what would the Court have decided? Judging by cases like Kassam v Hazzard; Henry v Hazzard [2021] NSWSC 1320, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which held that the NSW public health orders mandating Covid vaccination for some workers were not unlawful. Many not versed in case law read section 51xxiiiA of the Australian constitution, that does not permit any form of “civil conscription” regarding medical and dental services, as constituting a ban on any form of mandatory vaccination. The High Court of Australia (Wong v Commonwealth; Selim v Professional Services Review Committee (2009) 236 CLR 573), defined the scope of this section as referring to federal laws requiring providers of medical and dental services to work/be conscripted for the state. Nothing in the cases addressed present vaccination concerns.