Come down hard and fair on everyone

COVID Vaccinations should be mandated, full stop.(“No jab, no job,” Mercury, September 29). Mr Morrison should show leadership and make it compulsory. Akin to voting and completing tax returns and, penalties imposed for noncompliance.

It should not be the responsibility of each state to make their own rules, nor should it be up to businesses such as SPC, Qantas and the Queensland Commissioner of Police making it a condition of employment.

A national code that applies to each and everyone of us, regardless of industry with only those who have genuine reasons being exempted. The unions too should be supportive of such a mandate. This way workers are ensured of a safe workplace, and employers would be safeguarded against legal ramifications such as unfair dismissal and discrimination from those who refuse to be vaccinated.

It is a pandemic. A national dilemma that requires a streamlined approach. Collectively we would all benefit. Lee-Anne Spinks Bellerive

JUST GIMME SOME TRUTH

THE 80 per cent over-16 number that keeps getting quoted actually translates to opening our borders when only 64 per cent of people are vaccinated. Under 16’s can catch and spread the virus so must be included in the calculations regardless of whether they are eligible for vaccination.

With the prospect of opening up with 36 per cent unvaccinated along with the fact that some vaccinated people are dying, we need some honest answers. How many people will die if we open our borders? What chance has our strained health system of delivering our elective surgery requirements? What restrictions will we have to endure for the foreseeable future?

This is the time to reflect on how lucky we’ve been, and to question whether it’s worth giving all that up for a bit of travel, especially on a planet where most people are living in poverty (85 per cent live on less than $30/day). Andrew Hejtmanek Howden

THANK YOU

WE would like to thank the Tasmanian government for allowing us to explore over 1000km of our beautiful state, much of which we hadn’t seen before. Without the travel voucher, we probably wouldn’t have done this. Our reimbursement was also very quickly paid. Much appreciated.

Steve and Sue Berry Howrah

VOUCHER CHEER

WE are grateful recipients of the latest round of travel vouchers. We had a night’s accommodation at beautiful Cradle Mt and a cruise on the Lake St

Clair ferry. How stunning our state is. We have family and friends who also received vouchers and had wonderful experiences in our Tassie wilderness. Well done for this great initiative to stimulate our tourism industry and to get people out and about.

Mieke Devries Kingston

HOW ABOUT LIVING?

WHAT a fine group of construction workers we have in Tasmania. We are told they are willing to do their bit by getting vaccinated. How magnanimous. But we are told there has to be something in it for them. How about not catching, being hospitalised or dying from Covid?

N.D. Hutton Sandy Bay

COMMUNITY FEARS

IT beggars belief healthcare workers at the surgery of the small country community in Ouse refuse to be vaccinated.

To put the healthcare of that community in dire circumstance is simply unacceptable. Healthcare professionals will do everything in their power to ensure they can care for the sick. As vaccination will be mandatory for those in the construction and other industries, so it should be in healthcare.

Stewart Edwards

Mount Stuart

PREMIER OUTLOOK

PREMIER Peter Gutwein calling out the NSW plan to open early as “a recipe for an acceleration of the virus” (Mercury, September 29) is partly because the highly contagious Delta variant has swept through that state like Covid has in other parts of the world.

Director of Public Health Mark Veitch emphasised “we’ll use multiple pieces of information to inform decisions ... not just one particular source.”

Last week Politico in the US reported unpublished data from Israel that showed the Pfizer vaccine’s ability to prevent severe disease and hospitalisation wanes over time; as does the shot’s protection against mild and moderate disease. The Premier’s focus underscores the extent to which we are leaning on data and outcomes from the two largest states reopening over the next two months to forecast the next phase of the pandemic here; in his words: “the largest social and health experiments in the country’s history ... as (NSW and Victoria) attempt to bring their communities broadly into line with where we are here in Tasmania today.” (The efficacy of the proposed US six-month Pfizer booster shots can also inform Tasmania’s booster response in early 2022).

So I emphatically agree with the Premier. Let’s not be “impatient for the state to reopen its borders.”

Mick Bendor Danby