Questions over mandatory vaccinations

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) continues to strongly encourage aged care nurses and carers to receive COVID-19 vaccines, but is concerned that mandating vaccinations for the aged care workforce could be a ‘political decision, not a health decision’.

According to the ANMF, there is still ongoing confusion and very little detail on how mandatory vaccinations would be implemented. There is still no guarantee of special paid leave to assist aged care staff get their vaccinations and the $11 million pledged for workers, is just a mere $30 allocated for each worker still unvaccinated.

“The Morrison Government’s promises for aged care just keep coming, but at this stage, there are more questions than answers,” ANMF Federal Secretary, Annie Butler, said.

“Whilst the ANMF strongly encourages our members working in aged care to get vaccinated, we need to ensure that the Government’s mandate is based on clear-cut health advice not political advice. The critical issues now are access to vaccines and support for aged care staff.

“So far, the vaccine roll-out in privately-run aged care facilities has been an absolute shambles. To protect workers, elderly residents and the wider community, we need guaranteed access to vaccines for all aged care workers and paid leave to support that access and management of any reactions they may experience. 

“For three months, we’re been pleading with the Government to fund special leave to support aged care staff to receive their vaccinations, but there’s been total inaction.

“We still don’t know how vaccinations will be mandated; how staff will access the vaccines. Will they access on site where they work, or will they be forced to source their own? Aged care workers are confused, and many aged care providers are confused. Workers need clarity and security and action by the Government which is based on clear health advice.

“The ANMF has written to the Prime Minister seeking urgent clarification on these issues. 

“We know that as a nation, we must escalate the vaccination roll-out in aged care and the wider community and the ANMF and its members are willing and able to work with the Government and health agencies to get the job done.”

How do you think the government is handling the vaccine rollout? Are you disappointed we seem to be so far behind the rest of the world? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

12 comments

The slower the better as more clarity emerges on just how effective - or not - these so-called experimental vaccines are.  I'm happy to wait and believe the government is doing a good job.

 

I agree with you there. Mandating will not happen though - that would place the Government in the position of being able to be sued for any damages. Scott Morrison is already aware of this.

What the Governments might do instead is allow employers to sack people who don't take the shot- or to limit their shifts so much that they may as well not have a job - and can't survive. Or, Governments may find other ways to make the lives those who cannot or wish to avoid the shot for various reasons, miserable and impoverished.  

I doubt very much if safety or care for community or care for individuals is of concern to Governments anymore. There are many people who cannot physically tolerate Adjuvants in shots and other reasons why their health does not allow them to go ahead - and there is also the consideration of the experimental nature of this particular shot. 

There are also so many power gains evident for Governments to avoid backing off now.  They make more laws to enable them to be there  'lawfully'. 

So much has been invested in terrifying the world over so many months and are on track for diminishing populations and wealth for the middle and lower income groups.  

The next gens educational levels have been successfully thwarted as students have dropped out due to all the opening and closing of schools, universities. Good educators without pay had to find other ways to survive. Without International students, universities  had to release highly qualified lecturing.   

All this occurred due to lockdowns of everyone rather than following the law of the Australian Biosecurity Act. This Act mandates that in a pandemic,  to 1.  ONLY isolate the sick.  AND 2. Preserve the economy.

The Australian Biosecurity Act was blatantly transgressed and still is being illegally transgressed.  

Therefore, old and new businesses have collapsed. So many teen kids have dropped out of school, Universities have lost so many of their students. Many of these had almost completed their degrees. Suicides have magnified.
Families prevented from saying goodbye to their elders are now in deep grief.The elders were left isolated.  
Elders not visited lost will to live. Funerals could not be attended. Marriages could not happen.
Relationships between people in different states who planned on being together, split up.  
Pets died as people were suddenly stuck where they were and unable to get home to feed them. 
 Domestically violent people have had trapped victims at their mercy - nowhere to escape tyrants even for a few hours a day.  

Kids in shared parenting situations were  often left stuck with a destructive parent because they could not cross a border to get home to their primary carer parent.

People died through being unable to access life saving surgery or to begin cancer treatments, or to access hospital care whilst in lockdown.  

Mental health issues have of course, magnified. The latter is not surprising also given that most people have been taught in this society that being 'extroverted' is the 'way' to be.

Most cannot cope well with being isolated.  

Still, these horrors will not make those who know that their health cannot cope with shots, to go ahead and do so.
Neither will this push people into risking  an experimental shot knowing full well that there is no insurance company that will pay out for health damage  should there be adverse responses or death.  In any case, adverse responses are highly censored.

GP's risk losing their medical licenses if they speak up to admit any shot causes an issue.
Most often, adverse responses result in denial and claims that the person is just looking for a reason and being irrational in believing their medication played a part.
Adverse responses are likely to be highly underreported due to the above. 
Most of the public realise this.

Governments also realise that a high percentage of the public know this. Governments have, in any case, been clearly informed of it - so they will not at this point, risk further infuriating so many of the public as we move toward an election year.

If they manage to drag  out the drama until after the election - and if the public vote in one of the major political parties, it is likely that Martial Law to support the Fascist state is brought forward - and then Governments will do exactly as they wish to do and none of the public will have any say in anything whatsoever again.  

 

 

 

The idea of all aged-care workers requiring vaccination is a good one, but as the ANMF points out how this is to occur is not clear.

This fits with the way the whole vaccine rollout has been handled from the start.

I can't agree that making the COVID vaccination compulsory is acceptable. This is purely and simply a political decision, not a health decision. Labor has been hammering the government on the roll-out of the vaccine and using the figures of people who have received both doses as the benchmark when the figures of those who have had the first dose are much higher. Labor has also wrongly used the details of aged care homes which aren't under the control of the government when claiming that aged care homes are not being vaccinated. This barrage of criticism has forced the government to address it and compulsory vaccination is the result. We have had the first jab and will shortly receive the second and that is our choice. Those in aged care are not being given that choice and I find that undemocratic. It has been said that those in aged care who don't want the vaccine will leave the industry, an industry already under pressure with understaffing.

Privately run aged care facilities are the Federal Governments responsibility and as such they have been incredibly neglectful.

Labor has just been doing its job. 

 

As someone who thinks mandatory vaccinations are the way to go ( except for those with underlying medical conditions)...I think this is a good move and should have happened a lot sooner in the case of aged care workers.

 

 

I agree with you Sophie.   All aged care workers should have the vaccination - to me it is a no brainer.

 

If you make something mandatory, you remove the personal choice of the individual. In other words, you are taking on the responsibility the individual would otherwise have. So, if the government wishes to make vaccination mandatory, they are accepting the responsibility and liability for the welfare of the person they have denied free choice. That means that, should death or adverse reaction ensue, the government will be both morally and financially responsible. Given that the TGA has recorded 210 deaths from covid-19 vaccines up to May this year, there is the likelihood that they will continue under mandation, and the taxpayer will be forced to compensate the victims, as no government minister or MP will likely be held responsible.

Additionally, in direct violation of the Nuremberg Code and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, the government will be enforcing a medical procedure on individuals without free and informed consent. They then become guilty of an offence under international law, which may not look good if someone takes them to the ICC.

Scott, our practising 'Christian' prime minister, needs to think long and hard about this. The money or the people?

The number of recorded deaths from vaccinations in Australia, BillF2, is 1. The TGA report has been misused and the correct reading of the report is in this link: https://www.aap.com.au/meme-misuses-australian-data-to-falsely-claim-covid-19-vaccine-deaths/

Wether or not aged care workers are vaccinated should in my opinion be a personal choice. One has to ask where does it all end. By mandating aged care workers to have the vaccination apart from where this leaves the government legally then this should also be spread across all health care workers who work or care for vulnerable and often sick people. This is just a knee jerk reaction based on financial and political means and made by a Prime Minister who he himself chose to have his choice of vaccine and not the one allocated for his age group.  A good leader that instills confidence in those he represents leads by example. Scott Morrison's example has in my opinion only strengthened peoples distrust in the whole COVID and vaccination disaster that we as a nation are experiencing. 

There should be no “personal choice” in a pandemic. The goal is… s u r v i v a l !! Nothing to do with religion.

“Scott, our practising 'Christian' prime minister, needs to think long and hard about this. The money or the people?”....

Pardon me, but this question does not make any sense. 

"Given that the TGA has recorded 210 deaths from covid-19 vaccines up to May this year." 

Where did you get this information BillF2.

Don't you think that if that was true it would be all over the media? So, source please.

Also, mandating vaccination for people in certain occupations doesn't take away their choice. If they decide not to have a vaccine, they don't work in that occupation. They are still in charge of themselves.

The media has been instructed to NOT report anything that would deter people. This has been stated by the PM publicly and you can find evidence for this yourself when you look. 

 

 

So I looked. There have been 210 deaths after having the vaccine - not from the vaccine. You are talking rubbish Ra.

Here is the truth from the TGA website: https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-27-05-2021

"To 23 May 2021, 3.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given in Australia. In this period, the TGA has received 210 reports of deaths following immunisation – 109 have been reported for the Pfizer vaccine, 94 for the AstraZeneca vaccine and seven where the vaccine was not specified. Most of these reports (93%) were for people 65 years of age and over, and over three quarters were 75 years of age and over. Many of the deaths relate to elderly aged-care residents.

The TGA reviews all deaths reported after vaccination and monitors for safety signals. Part of our analysis includes comparing expected natural death rates to observed death rates following immunisation. To date, the observed number of deaths reported after vaccination is actually less than the expected number of deaths."

Take particular note of the last sentence.

You say, "The media has been instructed to NOT report anything that would deter people. " 

I can't believe that you would think that this would ever stop the media. In any case, who would instruct them?

You need to take your conspiracy theories and fake "facts" to another website.

 

Vaccination against the flu is compulsory for all who work in aged care. That is a fact and makes sense. It used to be that to enter Australia an up to date vaccination against smallpox was compulsory. 

If working in a facility that caters for vulnerable people, irrespective of their age, then it should be a condition of employment that vaccinations are required against viruses, diseases etc that are prevalent in society should such vaccinations be available.

Actually no, it is highly recommended, but not mandatory. No employer can make any vaccination mandatory. If they do, they are not only breaking the law, but they become personally liable financially and ethically for any adverse reaction or death in relation to that vaccination. This is Australian law.

All vaccinations should be mandatory. I want to feel confident when I arrive at my final aged care home that I am looked after by disease free individuals. 

Isn't this Vaccine only in 'Human Clinical trial stages' as stated by our Greg Hunt until 2023? and has only been approved for 'Emergency use only' My understanding of participating in a Human clinical trial can only occur when there is full voluntary consent by the participant without any form of involuntary bribery, duress or coercion. 

the carer in arcare Melbourne had her vacination and was still able to get covid and transmit,lots of aged care residents have not had the jab. lots of people go to aged care residents beside carers and not vacinated so we have to make it mandatory for all persons who come into contact with the elderly not just aged care residents.Lots of carers will resign. what is the government,fed and state, plan B,carers are overworked ,underpaid and treated like DIRT.

Looking forward to hear what PLAN B is?

12 comments



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