Don’t Worry, World War III has Not Driven Covid Mania Away! By Brian Simpson
Don’t fret my fellow Victorians, Dan is still thinking of you as winter approaches, a dark Covid winter that rolls in from the icy south. Thus, whether World War III happens or not, millions of Victorians face the next booster shot. There is now in Victoria, only three certainties, death, taxes and Covid booster shots.
“Millions of Victorians could be ordered to receive a booster shot amid fears of a horror winter season of Covid-19 ahead.
Premier Daniel Andrews has been holding discussions with peak industry groups about the possibility of introducing a third vaccine mandate to some workplace industries.
Workers are currently required to keep their vaccination status 'up to date' if they work in healthcare, aged care, disability, emergency services, correctional facilities, quarantine accommodation and food processing and distribution.
The mandate could be extended to hospitality workers.
An unnamed source told The Age a mandate for workers was still being considered in an desperate effort to increase booster shot rates amid fears of another horror wave of Covid.
'Employers more than anyone else, particularly in the hospitality industry, recognise that if they want to stay open, they've got to work with their workforce to get those levels up as high as possible,' health minister Martin Foley said.
The Franchise Council of Victoria, the Australian Retailers Association and Restaurant and Catering Australia all confirmed the state government has starting seeking feedback, sparking a divided reaction.
'[Mandating third doses] is like saying to a business that has won the lotto they need to give their money back. Businesses who have just begun to make money could go backwards again — the rug will be pulled from underneath their feet,' Restaurant & Catering Australia boss Wes Lambert said.”
I wonder how the decision of the High court of New Zealand will impact upon Australian jurisprudence, since it was decided that the vaccine mandates for police and military force staff breached the Bill of Rights Act 1990? There could be a flow-on effect coming from this. It would be grand to see the Australian mandates also smacked down.
“The New Zealand High Court has upheld a challenge to a vaccine mandate for Police and Defence Force staff, stating that it was not a “demonstrably justified” breach of the Bill of Rights.
Justice Francis Cooke was asked by a group of Police and Defence Force personnel to judicially review the vaccine mandate enacted under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act in December.
The mandate required all Defence Force personnel and all Police constables, recruits, and authorized officers to receive two doses of the vaccine by March 1.
But on Jan. 6, three unvaccinated staff who did not wish to receive the shots sought a judicial review of the mandate. They were supported by affidavits from 37 of their colleagues in the same position.
The group claims that two rights of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 had been limited by the mandate: the right to refuse a medical treatment and the right to manifest religious beliefs.
Part of the group’s religious objections to the mandate were concerns over the fact that “the Pfizer vaccine had at some point been tested on cells that had been derived from a human foetus.”
According to UCLA Health, COVID-19 vaccines do not contain aborted fetal cells but Johnson & Johnson did use fetal cell lines when developing and producing their vaccine, and Pfizer and Moderna used them to test their vaccines to ensure they work.
The group claimed that “requiring vaccination by such a vaccine was in conflict with the religious beliefs of some of the affected persons.”
Cooke, in a judgment (pdf) released on Friday in New Zealand, did not accept some of the applicants’ arguments but agreed that the mandate “is not a reasonable limit on rights that can be demonstrably justified” and set the order aside.
“I conclude that the Order does not involve a reasonable limit on the applicants’ rights that can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society and that it is unlawful,” Cooke said.
“The order limits the right to be free to refuse medical treatment recognised by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (including because of its limitation on people’s right to remain employed), and it limits the right to manifest religious beliefs for those who decline to be vaccinated because the vaccine has been tested on cells derived from a human foetus which is contrary to their religious beliefs,” Cooke said.”
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