Beauty and Beard owner calls for clarity on Covid vaccine mandate

The head of a rapidly expanding Gympie business has added his voice to a rising chorus of concerns over the impending Qld Covid vaccine mandate, saying his dream risks being destroyed if the laws are not rolled out correctly.

Beauty and the Beard owner Jarrod Dan is calling for clarity and options when it comes to the State Government’s controversial Covid vaccination mandates, saying under the rules available right now he faces having to let staff go.

The owner of an expanding Gympie business said on Thursday three decades of work was at risk of being destroyed unless the State Government delivered more clarity on its controversial Covid rules.

Beauty and the Beard owner Jarrod Dan called for more clarity and better communication as the deadline for border reopening loomed.

Under the new rules to come in as of December 17, only vaccinated staff will be allowed in an indoor hospitality business.

“We’ve just come out of this period where it’s so hard to get a team … now we’ve just been told … any team member who is unvaccinated, for whatever reason, is not allowed to be in the venue.

“That’s really hard knowing the pool we’re drawing from out there is quite difficult.

“How many team members am I going to lose?”

Under the Queensland Government’s 80 per cent vaccination rules, unvaccinated staff and guests will banned from hospitality venues.

As of November 22, slightly more than two-thirds of Gympie’s eligible 15-year-plus population was fully vaccinated.

The laws have drawn criticism not only through protests, but from politicians railing against the mandates.

Under the public health measures coming in to play at 80 per cent vaccination, available on the State Government’s website, only vaccinated staff and patrons will be able to enter.

Unvaccinated guests will only be able to attend weddings (with restrictions) and venues including retail stores, funerals and public transport while observing strict density rules.

Mr Dan said this was not a “black and white” situation, nor was he arguing for or against vaccines.

What he wanted was options.

“We employ plus 20 team … why do we have to change that?

“I’m sure there’s an option available for unvaccinated team (members).”

Jarrod Dan opened the Grace and Whiskers cafe in the second half of 2021 in an economy already grappling with Covid rules, and is concerned he will lose out on what is supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year with the impending vaccination mandates.

If there was not, then the timing of how and when information was being released made it nigh impossible to keep employees still on the fence.

“If my team don’t go this week and get one vaccination it’s unclear whether they will be able to get the double dose by the 18th (of December).

“This (road map) only came out on Saturday.”

It left his staff and their families in a precarious position and his business facing hard times in what was supposed to be its busiest time of year.

“We will take a hit to the income, 100 per cent,” Mr Dan said.

“There’s no point guessing what that percentage (loss) would be, but we will take a hit.”

Despite the high stakes he said he had been forced to scrape for details.

Jarrod Dan said his concerns were not about being pro or anti-vaccine, but ensuring there were options for people to make their own choices.

“Still to this day I’ve not had any communication from the State Government,” Mr Dan said.

“The communication that we’ve got is what we’ve driven off the website, and the website is based on a road map saying there’s 80 per cent double dosage rate at 17 December.”

Mr Dan remained concerned the potential for another lockdown remained possible if cases surged when borders reopened.

“That was really hard the first time; we only just scraped through,” he said.

“I’m not sure we’d scrape through on the second one.

“I don’t want to shut all this down, it’s my dream.

“It took me 35 years to build it, I don’t want to break it down in 36 seconds.”