‘Carrot beats stick’ on vaccine hesitancy

The scientist in charge of benchmarking Covid vaccine take-up for the federal government believes hesitancy over the jab is fading, averting the need for coercive measures.

Aged-care workers are the only group in Australia required to have the vaccine, though some states have ordered public hospital staff to get it. Picture: AFP

The scientist in charge of benchmarking Covid vaccine take-up for the federal government believes hesitancy over the jab is fading, averting the need for coercive measures to drive the rollout.

Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin said the “carrot” of incentives for people to get inoculated should take precedence over mandating it.

But echoing calls by business leaders for the option to be examined, she said compulsory vaccination could be required if the rate in Australia continued to lag other developed nations.

“My view is the carrot is the best way to do it,” Professor Lewin told The Australian. “You offer incentives for vaccinated people – greater freedom, travel opportunities – which is medically justified rather than make it mandatory.

“But, you know, we may end up in a position where mandatory vaccination may be needed. So I agree it should be discussed.

“I am still optimistic that once we have really good supply we won’t be facing the challenges we have and that we are seeing in some countries overseas.”

The Melbourne-based Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity developed the vaccination targets underpinning Scott Morrison’s phased plan to move past lockdowns.

Under this strategy, approved by national cabinet last Friday, Australia will progress from the suppression phase of pandemic response once 70 per cent of the adult population is inoculated. The Prime Minister hopes to hit the mark by the end of the year as supply of the imported Pfizer vaccine recommended for under-60s ramps up, and orders of Moderna and Novavax arrive.

When 80 per cent coverage is achieved, phase three will kick in, lifting most restrictions on vaccinated people; targeted lockdowns would then happen in only exceptional circumstances, Mr Morrison has said. Uncapped international travel would resume under an end-stage scenario of Australians living with Covid in a similar way to influenza.

The unknown quantity is vaccine hesitancy, which polls earlier this year put as high as 30 per cent, numbering those unwilling or reluctant to have the Covid shot.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott now wants a “targeted conversation” about mandatory vaccination and Qantas last week urged that all aviation industry workers be required to have it.

But Professor Lewin said recent data suggested alarm over the virulence of the Delta variant and a succession of capital city lockdowns had shifted public opinion. Nearly four million people in Greater Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast at the weekend joined Sydneysiders under stay-at-home orders, while Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth went through lockdown last month.

Some polling showed the proportion of Australians refusing to have the vaccine was down to 5 per cent, with 15 per cent undecided, Professor Lewin said. “I am optimistic we will not see the same hesitancy we’re seeing in countries like the US here in Australia.”

While 50 per cent of Americans are fully immunised, Delta has taken off in an unvaccinated population of 93 million who have baulked at having the free vaccine.

Professor Lewin said public health settings and attitudes to vaccination were very different in Australia. “Vaccination in the US remains a highly politicised issue … very much a consequence of major inequalities in their healthcare system,” she said. “A whole lot of other issues are playing out here with vaccine uptake.”

Aged-care workers are the only group in Australia required to have the vaccine, though some states have ordered public hospital staff to get it. Queensland has urged that vaccination be mandated for fly-in, fly-out mine workers, airline flight crew and interstate truck drivers. The legality of this is contested. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission says vaccination status is not a protected attribute under state anti-discrimination law. But if an employer made the Covid jab a condition of employment or if a service provider required proof of vaccination, this could be discrimination.

Mr Morrison maintains vaccination should be voluntary for the general population and “you can’t make compulsory things that aren’t able to be made compulsory under our law”.