Alan Jones: Australian government must come clean on COVID vaccine questions

Questions are surfacing around Australia’s coronavirus vaccination rollout as Israel is being held up as the ‘gold standard’ of programs. But all is not as it seems, writes Alan Jones.

This vaccine creature has many legs.

One of them is the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which caused a stir last week amongst those receiving the jab by prohibiting GPs, pharmacies and health centres from advertising which vaccine they are offering.

The public are saying, in their droves, we want to know what is going into our body.

Now, it seems, in a very vague formulation of words, that the TGA has backflipped and is arguing that doctors, pharmacists and others can use a range of advertising content, authorised by the Australian Government to inform consumers about the vaccines.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits the CSL vaccine manufacturing facility on in February. Picture: David Caird-Pool/Getty

These people seem incapable of speaking in plain language.

Does the patient know what vaccine is being administered or not?

A lot of things are not clear.

The Federal Government has an October deadline to fully vaccinate all Australians who want the jab.

But AstraZeneca’s Australian manufacturer CSL told a Parliamentary Committee this week, it was weeks away from producing a million doses a week.

I am not anti-vaccination but there are a stack of issues here unresolved.

Amongst them, the workplace ramifications of vaccination.

There is an outfit called SafeWork Australia.

They have released guidelines but government has said nothing on this workplace issue, except that the Federal Government has made vaccination voluntary.

Israel’s COVID vaccine rollout is said to be the gold standard for Australia to follow yet there are many unanswered questions. Illustration: Terry Pontikos

But the “guidelines” say, rather frighteningly, employers will be able to require customers and visitors to prove they have been vaccinated as a condition of entry to their premises.

What do the public know of this?

But then, this crowd, SafeWork Australia, say, almost by way of contradiction, that employees will “generally,” whatever that means, not be able to refuse to come to work because a colleague has not been vaccinated.

To add to the confusion, the guidelines then say, it is unlikely a requirement for workers to be vaccinated will be reasonably practical.

What does reasonable mean?

Is it reasonable to demand an employee be vaccinated?

Only government can answer that question — but government is silent.

All these cards have to be put on the table now.

What, for example, are we to make of the Israel position?

It is being held up as a “gold standard” in administering the vaccine to its population.

The World Economic Forum is running an ad campaign on Israel’s “green pass,” a system that once you have received two doses of the vaccine, you will be free to engage in certain activities which those who have not been vaccinated will be banned from doing or attending.

Is that going to happen here?

Vaccinated, come in. Not vaccinated, not welcome.

In Israel there is a move by the Government to maintain permanent restrictions on those who choose not to take the vaccine, even putting their names on a list.

Is this the “gold standard”?

Reports say that, from this week, only the vaccinated will be able to access gyms, hotels and movie theatres when Israel begins to reopen for business.

If this is the “gold standard,” then are we going to follow Israel, which has passed legislation that allows “the Health Ministry to supply local authorities with the personal information of those who have refused vaccines”. Surely a blatant violation of privacy?

Hadas Ziv, of Physicians for Human Rights, accused the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, of “passing a draconian law which crushes medical ethics and patient rights”.

A paramedic with Israel's Magen David Adom medical services vaccinates a Palestinian woman in a mobile clinic at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

The Times of Israel reported: “The BIG shopping centre firm announced it will not allow unvaccinated Israelis into its offices;” and there is talk that some big companies will pay their staff for the hours needed to go to get vaccinated.

Others are offering bonuses to staff who are vaccinated.

Why is this happening?

Remember, we are being told that Israel is the leading country for vaccines being administered to their population.

But vaccine rates, there, have stalled.

Demand, we are told, has dropped by 50 per cent since a record 240,000 Israelis were vaccinated on January 12.

Data suggests that 7.5 million doses have so far been administered, which is about 50 per cent of the population.

But now it is clear that the other 50 per cent are vaccine hesitant?

Many of these people are doctors, nurses and other large groups.

If Israel is the “gold standard” and leading the world in vaccination rates per capita, then we ought to know about the worrying signs of medical workers declining to be vaccinated.

Reports in the Times of Israel say that under two-thirds of hospital staff at the Laniado Hospital Centre have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

These are Health Ministry figures.

At the Netanya hospital, 40 per cent of the doctors and 40 per cent of the nurses have not been vaccinated, even though the vaccines have been available to medical staff since late December.

This week we learnt that Victoria has only administered 30 per cent of the available doses to quarantine and hospital workers, at Pfizer hubs.

Queensland has administered only 22 per cent.

NSW has used, apparently, 75 per cent of the doses available in its Pfizer hub; the Commonwealth, 72 per cent.

But the Federal Government aimed to have 60,000 people vaccinated by the end of February; only half that number have received a jab.

I understand the rollout in Queensland was slowed after a GP gave four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine to two aged care residents in Brisbane.

But the Federal Government says it will have all Australians vaccinated by October.

That seems a promise it can’t keep.

But is it necessary?

The key should be to have all vulnerable people vaccinated before Winter.

But the rub is this, which governments must answer.

If, as in Israel, significant sections of the population are not being vaccinated, and Israel is the “gold standard” — and health officials say they have no explanation for why people are not coming — and, in response, Israel have mandated that only the vaccinated can access gyms, hotels and movie theatres; and Israel’s Prime Minister is backing proposed legislation which would allow local authorities to name and shame unvaccinated residents; isn’t it legitimate to ask the Australian Government to explain to us which components of this “gold standard” Australia is going to accept?

We are already heading down a dangerous path if we want to believe we are a liberal democracy.

Are we now going to ban people, punish people and name and shame people because they are not vaccinated?

Not some, but all of these questions should be answered, openly to the Australian people.