Time to remove vaccination mandates, experts say

Experts say it’s time to remove vaccine mandates for those who want to do certain activities including eating in restaurants.

Experts believe it is time to rethink vaccine mandates for dining, fitness and events as Omicron continues to spread throughout Australia.

Australians living in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia are still required to show proof they have had two doses of a Covid vaccine to do things such as eat out, go to the pub and visit sporting events.

But with 93 per cent of Australian adults now vaccinated and the emergence of the more infectious variant Omicron, some experts believe it’s time this rule was dropped.

University of New South Wales social scientist Associate Professor Holly Seale said there were many reasons why people remained unvaccinated and based on interviews she had conducted, mandates were not going to incentivise or nudge the people toward vaccination.

“Probably it is more likely to nudge them to sit outside on the lawns at parliament in Canberra,” she wrote as part of a piece in The Conversation.

She said this concern was echoed in a recent article that suggested one of the potential unintended consequences of Covid vaccine policies could include the erosion of trust and polarisation.

“Just like any other public health intervention, there needs to be ongoing review and adjustments to account for changes in risk, burden of infection and potential (and often unintended) impact of the intervention,” she wrote.

Deakin University epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett said the emergence of Omicron had also reduced the effectiveness of vaccines.

“The booster restores protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron to over 60 per cent, but given the small number in the population who either haven’t been infected or vaccinated, there is little to be gained from having vaccine mandates in place,” she wrote.

There’s little to be gained to keep vaccine mandates in place for those wanting to eat out, one expert says. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely said structures and mechanisms like vaccine passports and mandates needed to be in place and ready to go if they were needed but this did not mean they should be “turned on” all the time.

“It makes sense, in east Australia at least, to be cautious about school return,” he said.

“I doubt we will see much of a kick up in transmission of Omicron due to schools returning, but I support the four week plans of ventilation, twice weekly rapid antigen tests of children, and such like – to be sure.

“Otherwise, we can soon ease off further on restrictions – and not even require vaccine passports – as Omicron passes. But we need to be ready to turn measures back on with a new variant.”

The ethics of continuing mandates was also questioned by University of Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu.

He said it was right to encourage and promote healthy behaviours but to single out the unvaccinated for mandates if there was not an extraordinary health system crisis, was to discriminate against them.

Prof Savulescu compared it to turning overweight people away from McDonald’s or stopping people drinking alcohol because they might put a burden on the health system.

“Even if the health system is in crisis, general vaccine mandates are unlikely to be justified,” he said.

“Hospitalisation risk increases substantially with age. The only vaccine mandates that are likely to be justified are selective mandates for the elderly – but they are likely to take the vaccine voluntarily because it is strongly in their interests.”

The only vaccine mandates that are likely to be justified are selective mandates for the elderly, a bioethicist says. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

However, University of Western Australia political scientist Associate Professor Katie Attwell disagreed and said global lessons from childhood vaccination indicate mandates should be removed with care.

“Removal may send a message that vaccination is no longer important,” she wrote. “Governments need to be very careful about introducing mandates precisely because they are so challenging to jettison!

“If a third dose is added to mandates, governments will need to provide the population with a careful and considered communication campaign as to why this is necessary and legitimate.

“My unpublished research indicates we should not assume people who have had two doses will be equally happy to keep having further doses.”