As Victoria’s COVID-19 pandemic declaration comes to an end, a behavioural scientist says the continuing use of vaccine mandates may be “ethically problematic” and should be carefully scrutinised. While, from 11:59pm Wednesday, the state government’s mandate will only apply in healthcare, in many other sectors vaccination requirements will remain in place.
Julie Leask — whose work focuses on vaccination — said although mandates did have an important role to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing them was “ethically problematic”. “You should only have them in place when you’ve got very clear objectives that make them ethically and pragmatically justifiable,” the University of Sydney social scientist said.
Professor Leask said there was a clearer imperative for mandates in health and aged care settings, where there was an “ethical weight towards ensuring that those patients feel safe”. The public health professor said vaccine mandates that incentivised more than 80 per cent of Australians to get two initial COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021 did their job.