Rex Jory: If people refuse to have the vaccination they should face restrictions

We need to get the number of vaccinated people in Australia up to about 80 per cent so just make it compulsory already, writes Rex Jory. Do you agree?

Australia must make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory. Let’s stop nibbling at the edges of this crisis.

Instead of people having the right to opt in or stay out, everyone should be automatically programmed for a vaccination unless they deliberately opt out.

The reasons for opting out and/or avoiding the vaccination would have to be substantial. It wouldn’t be enough to say they’re frightened of injections, scared the jab might cause a blood clot or that it would override civil liberties.

If people refused to have the vaccination, they would face restrictions such as being banned from hotels, restaurants, sporting fixtures, dances, certain workplaces and air travel.

Making Covid jabs compulsory would be anathema to some. But Australia is facing an unprecedented health problem.

Covid is so contagious that chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier says it’s dangerous for an AFL crowd to touch the football.

The outbreak in Victoria that triggered a 14-day lockdown indicates how menacing Covid is. Acting Premier James Merlino said the variant was “quicker and more contagious than we have ever seen”.

He warned: “If we let this thing run its course, it will explode. We’ve got to run this to ground because if we don’t people will die.”

Mr Merlino said vaccinations were the best protection but last week only 2 per cent of the population were fully vaccinated. His warning could just as easily be about South Australia.

The rollout of vaccinations has been painfully slow. This has been inhibited by a minority of people critical of the vaccines available.

Making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory would help Australia to become more resilient.

They are simply wrong. Who among us has the moral authority or medical knowledge to put family, friends and strangers at risk by refusing the vaccination?

The way to beat Covid is not to reject vaccines but embrace them. If Australia doesn’t achieve up to an 80 per cent vaccinated rate, there is a risk the virus will find a Trojan horse into Fortress Australia.

We are deluding ourselves that somehow the Lucky Country is going to be spared. If the majority have had the jab the worst impact will be avoided.

A range of vaccinations for illnesses such as chickenpox, measles, mumps and polio are effectively compulsory in Australia. Parents who choose not to have their children immunised face bans and restrictions.

Forcing people to have the Covid vaccination would not be politically popular among a rowdy minority – but popular isn’t necessarily right.

What Australians are craving is a government that shows leadership, not one that is doing well in public opinion polls.

John Howard was criticised when he imposed a gun amnesty in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre. The decision may not have been popular but it was right.

Safeguarding Australians against Covid by compelling people to have the jab mightn’t be popular, but it would be right. If we can force people to lock down in their homes, or to quarantine in hotels at their own expense, why can’t we compel people to have the Covid vaccination?

Civil liberties are great but this is a matter of life and death.

Originally published as Rex Jory: If people refuse to have the vaccination they should face restrictions