Since its unwelcome arrival over a year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented us with a range of moral and ethical quandaries — some hypothetical, some deeply pragmatic.
How should a limited number of respirators be allocated if demand outstrips supply? Who should get access to vaccines first? What does the Government owe those whose livelihoods have been disrupted by state-mandated health measures?
Right now, a critical debate is proceeding about the ethics of mandating vaccinations in the workplace.
Employer groups have discussed mandatory and some employers, like the fruit canner SPC, have gone a step further and simply declared vaccines mandatory on site.
The government has understandably been asked to step in and provide clarity: is it right for employers to mandate vaccines or not?
No clear answer is forthcoming. Nor, I fear, should we expect one in the near future, because the government has to date failed to provide clarity on a much more straightforward ethical question — that of the vaccination of health care workers.
Catholic Health Australia represents 83 hospitals across the country, treating millions of patients each year. These hospitals employ tens of thousands of health workers, doctors, nurses, and allied health staff.
None are currently required, by Australian law, to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
People I speak to tend to be bemused by this. It seems utterly baffling that someone could feasibly contract COVID-19 from an unvaccinated healer in a hospital, as has happened on a number of occasions in the past week at some of the NSW’s largest hospitals. The situation is all the more unfathomable when one considers that healthcare workers in high-risk settings are already required to be vaccinated against a number of diseases including influenza, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and hepatitis B, among others.
'It seems utterly baffling that someone could feasibly contract COVID-19 from an unvaccinated healer in a hospital, as has happened on a number of occasions in the past week.'
And yet, a year-and-half into the pandemic, here we are. Why the reticence from government? Surely health care workers who are treating the most vulnerable among us should be vaccinated.
Conservative critics of workplace-linked vaccines, like Senator Matt Canavan, suggest it is an issue of the individual rights of the worker and cite slippery slope arguments about the state or employers being able to ‘force’ people to undergo ‘medical procedures.’
Such concerns are misplaced.
When considering the ethics of requiring vaccines for hospital workers, it should be considered as part of the moral contract a