VACCINE PASSES

The letter by Carole Devereux concerning vaccine passes is deeply flawed. A person who is unvaccinated is no more a health risk than the moon is made of green cheese. To compare a vaccine pass to a driver’s license or a passport is nonsensical, a vaccine pass is only proof of having had a vaccine – nothing more, nothing less. To stop people from doing this or doing that because they are regarded as a health risk is ridiculous.

I haven’t been vaccinated for my own reasons but am regarded as though I am a leper, a carrier of disease. I cannot go to the library or get some takeaways or even leave Auckland because I am a risk, but a risk to who? The only one at risk is myself. When Omicron comes in properly, the vaccine pass isn’t going to stop people getting sick, I for one will be out there trying to catch it so that I’ve got natural immunity and the more people that get it the more chance that Covid will fizzle out. Bring it on.

John Kirby, Otahuhu

EDITOR’S NOTE: Recent reports from the Victorian Department of Health find that unvaccinated people are 10 times more likely to contract Covid than vaccinated people. We also know that vaccinated people are less likely to transmit the disease even if they become infected.

So an unvaccinated person poses a potentially greater health risk to others than someone who is vaccinated.

With 94 per cent of elligible New Zealanders now double vaccinated, it can be said that being vaccinated is a social norm. If a person doesn’t want to be vaccinated, that is their choice. But, they will face restrictions – just as someone who wants to smoke can’t light up wherever and whenever they want.