Myself and my partner discussed vaccination for Covid and we decided we would get vaccinated – not for ourselves but for the “common good”. Vaccination doesn’t stop a person getting covid and neither does it stop a person spreading covid but it does relieve the symptoms of covid. This means it will reduce pressure on the health system for those that need it – those for whom covid has more serious effects.

For example had most people been vaccinated in the UK, the US and northern Italy their hospitals would not have been overwhelmed. Far fewer people would have needed hospital care and far fewer people would have died. The same applies in Aotearoa New Zealand or anywhere else.

However, I am strongly opposed to the government making vaccination mandatory for workers in any setting. This is wrong headed and frankly stupid. The assumption that those who are vaccinated are somehow “safe” while those unvaccinated are somehow “unsafe” is unhelpful, unscientific and is being quite calculatedly being enforced by social bullying.

In teaching for example, a fully vaccinated teacher who may have and spread covid infection to others will be welcomed in classrooms BUT an unvaccinated teacher who can show through a rapid antigen test that they don’t have covid will be banned from teaching. This is brainless. It does not make sense at any level.

The same applies to hairdressers, cafes and gyms or our airports and ports for that matter.

The government has a responsibility to promote vaccination as the best way at present to protect our health system from overload and therefore save lives but it has no justification to demand anyone be sacked for refusing to be vaccinated. That’s not choice – it’s frenzied harassment by the state.

The government should step back from its draconian regime for mandatory vaccinations and show some basic respect for individuals who make personal decisions not to be vaccinated and who can show their non-covid status at any time.