We are reaching an interesting stage in the vaccination program. The country’s recent vaccination roll out has been on steroids and we are now in a position where 80% of the target population should be vaccinated within the next month or so. We were slow starters, mainly because we were not subject to a pandemic that was killing our people and clogging our health systems, so we were able to have an orderly and properly organised roll out instead of panicking. But ever since the response has accelerated.
The complaints about the speed of the roll out have continued. But to be frank they miss the point. Our vaccination rate in comparison to the rest of the OECD is improving and our death rate is phenomenally good.
We are at the bottom of this graph, hidden because our ranking is so low.
Our death rate, at 5.6 deaths per million people is at the bottom of the OECD ranking. The second best country is Australia at 46 deaths per million, followed by South Korea at 47 and Iceland at 96. If we had emulated Australia’s performance, second best in the OECD, there would have been 230 deaths, if we had performed as well as Denmark, an advanced nation with a superb health system the body count would have been 2,250. And if we had been as bad as Hungary there would have been over 15,000 deaths. Choose your preference.
Novelty campaigns such as the Shot Bro bus and the suggested KFC for jabs will have some effect particularly in poorer areas that are suffering the brunt of the latest infections. But we are now getting to the situation where we are reaching the reluctant and different techniques for this group will be required.
Throughout the world there are a variety of measures being used, from the coaxing and persuasion to the more gnarly use of regulatory might. Vaccine passports will soon be a reality. If you cannot prove you have been vaccinated then you may not be able to fly or attend concerts or even visit restaurants.
Employers will be under some pressure. How do you balance the right of a staff member to determine what health treatment they receive with the need to provide a safe workspace?
The more public facing the role the more likely that the right to refuse medical treatment is going to be overridden by policy decisions setting reasonable legal limits that can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society which is doing with a pandemic.
Trevor Mallard has sparked the debate by wondering if non vaccinated Parliamentary staffers should work from home and not at the Parliamentary precinct.
Handling of the end of the roll out will be critical. We are now moving from the highly motivated though the general population and into the reluctant sector of the population. And the virus does not discriminate. All it seeks is a warm body to propagate in.
This is why among all of her recent misdemeanors Judith Collins claiming that we should not make vaccination compulsory and that we will end up with two classes of people is so irresponsible. Publicly feeding into anti vaccination feelings is highly irresponsible. Although she is right in one respect. There will be two classes of people, vaccinated people for who a covid infection will on most occasions be no more than an irritant and unvaccinated people who will face the prospect of a lingering death.
Persuasion is still the most effective technique. If a family member, friend or work colleague is reluctant this information may help.
Otherwise there is always this Family Guy video.
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