Highlights:
- NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said COVID-19 vaccines don't stop transmission
- Professor Peter Collignon said vaccine mandates should be scrapped
- AMA President Steve Robson supports COVID-19 vaccine requirement for doctors
Former healthcare worker Laura (name changed) said she was stood down without pay and eventually terminated two years ago for refusing COVID-19 vaccination for personal reasons.
Laura, the sole breadwinner, had to work odd jobs, sell belongings, and dig into saving to keep her family afloat.
"I can't afford swimming lessons or paediatric appointments for my children. The mandates should never have happened. This is someone's livelihood. Not a small matter," Laura told SBS.
"Now it is public information that vaccines do not prevent the spread nor infection. So why were people like me penalised so heavily for something never proven back then," she asked.
A recent interview by New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has reignited the debate around the COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Do vaccines stop transmission?
Professor Steve Robson, president of the Australian Medical Association, said it's untrue that vaccines don't stop transmission.
"If a vaccinated person gets COVID-19, they are still less likely to pass COVID-19 to other close contacts than if they weren't vaccinated at all," Prof Robson told SBS.
Prof Robson shared a published in Nature on 26 August 2022 as evidence that the COVID vaccine and previous infection slash the risk of spreading Omicron.
But the same study noted that "the benefit of vaccines in reducing Omicron transmission doesn't last long."
On 1 March 2023, Coles joined other Australian employers in dropping their COVID-19 vaccination requirement for its team members at stores, distribution centres and other sites. Source: AAP / JAMES GOURLEY/AAPIMAGE
"But not by as much as many of us would have expected," Prof Collignon said.
"This is mainly an issue since Delta and Omicron variants have spread and their ability to better escape vaccine effects.
They (vaccine) still prevent about 30 per cent of mild infections but only for a few monthsProfessor Peter Collignon
Professor Catherine Bennett, Deakin University chair of epidemiology, said there are no detailed transmission studies for the latest vaccines targeting the newer variants.
"But we know effectiveness against onward transmission was reduced for the original vaccines when Delta came along," Professor Bennett said.
"The latest data out of the UK shows there is at least short-term effectiveness out to two to three months in reducing the risk of infection following a booster."
Should the remaining workplaces drop vaccine mandates?
Some private companies, emergency services, residential aged care and disability care facilities, and healthcare providers insist their staff stay up-to-date with vaccination, citing workplace health and safety laws.
At this stage, given the poor performance of vaccines in stopping or decreasing transmission, we should no longer have mandatesProf Collignon
"It's much more important to ensure all aged care residents are vaccinated and have boosters. That is the main way you will decrease deaths from COVID," Prof Collignon said.
"The emphasis on vaccine mandates on young workers is misplaced. The emphasis needs to be on the elderly, especially those in aged care facilities," he added.
AMA's president Prof Robson, however, holds a different view.
Prof Robson said Australian health departments mandate influenza and Hepatitis B vaccines for healthcare workers who have physical contact with patients or samples from patients.
"This both protects the patients and the healthcare workers in the workplace," he said.
"Patients in aged care and disability care often are very vulnerable. For these reasons, we support doctors who care for patients being vaccinated not only against COVID infection but other infectious diseases."
Prof Bennett said each setting needs to assess its transmission risk.
"The higher the risk that workplace transmission poses, the more appropriate it is to have some rules in place that help manage that risk," she said.
"It makes sense that high-risk settings, like health care, that already have requirements in place for flu vaccine would have similar requirements for COVID."
What's the government's stand?
Australia's Department of Health and Aged Care said it strongly supports immunisation, but the government's position on COVID-19 vaccination is that it is voluntary.
"The Australian government is not responsible for any vaccine mandates," it told SBS in a statement.
"State and territory public health orders may set mandatory vaccination requirements for certain professions and the limited exemptions that apply," it added.
NSW Health refused to comment, saying it was a matter for the state government, while Victoria Health said it was up to individual workplaces to set their own vaccination policies.
Return of healthcare staff
Healthcare worker Laura is "still in two minds" whether she would return to her original role if the vaccine mandate were scrapped at her workplace.
"The work environment has changed for the worse. I'm not sure if I'd still want to be a part of the system that treated my friends and I unfairly," she said
AMA President Prof Robson said most healthcare workers who left the system had nothing to do with vaccine mandates.
We understand that only 0.6 per cent of the healthcare workforce in NSW, for example, left because of a requirement for vaccinationAMA President Steve Robson
"The main problems are pressure, lack of support for healthcare workers, poor workplace conditions and remuneration, and other issues.
"We think it is very unlikely that lifting the vaccine requirements will boost the healthcare workforce dramatically - indeed, this might concern some healthcare workers enough that they might leave the system," Prof Robson added.
Professor Bennett said workers might return to those work settings with no other vaccination requirements, such as influenza if the COVID mandates are scrapped.
"But there could be some reluctance to return to frontline roles as there is no guarantee against mandates returning should a new variant emerge that poses a much greater health risk," she said.
Prof Collignon said any return of workers into the system would benefit areas with staff shortages.
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