South Australia Health to Drop Vaccine Mandates

Another win for "hybrid immunity"!

In positive news, it looks likely another domino will fall as South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer recently announced a potential change to the vaccination requirements for frontline health staff in Australia’s fifth most populous state.

“Under the proposed changes, staff would exempted if they sign a declaration acknowledging they had been advised of the proven benefits of Covid vaccinations – and their active decision to forgo its benefits.”¹ [emphasis added]

The move would allow staff who had separated or had their positions terminated at South Australia Health to be reinstated.

So what has prompted the change?

South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer explains:

“‘With South Australians now benefiting from the hybrid immunity to COVID through immunisation and past protections, we believe the time is right to consult on changes to our current mandatory vaccination policy,’ Professor Spurrier said.” [emphasis added]

Similar logic has been applied in the NSW context, as NSW Health recently announced a similar proposal to remove COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment for frontline workers:

“Governments should treat vaccine mandates like other health policies and review them regularly in the context of changing evidence. . . . In the case of COVID, the general population has developed high levels of hybrid immunity from vaccination and infection.”² [emphasis added]

We predicted this response in our 25 March article covering the proposal to drop vaccination mandates for NSW Health workers:

“[W]e anticipate that [the decision to drop the vaccination mandate] will likely celebrate the pivotal role of vaccination and the population's “hybrid immunity” in enabling us to “move forward” despite the ongoing presence of COVID-19.” [emphasis added]

Vaccine Mandates to be Dropped for NSW Health Workers

So, the “vaccines” will get another free pass from natural immunity.

And this evaluation of the alleged successes of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is problematic.

So what’s the problem?

The claims about hybrid immunity are overstated, and it is actually natural immunity derived from COVID-19 infection (not vaccination) which explains COVID-19’s epidemiological outcomes in Australia for these reasons:

1. We know that vaccine effectiveness wanes substantially over time to levels as low as 20% from six months since last vaccine dose³, and it follows that vaccine effectiveness might wane to virtually nothing, years after the receipt of the last dose;

2. We also know that previous infection provides higher protection against reinfection and more sustained protection against hospital admission or severe disease than vaccination does alone;⁴

3. Many Australians completed their COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021 and have not received boosters since then;

4. Therefore, if these Australians have maintained immunity against COVID-19 in 2024, it is likely enhanced by natural infections rather than solely relying on the waned effects of their initial vaccinations completed so long ago.

Why is this important?

For months, we were kept confined in our homes, locked out of workspaces and away from family and friends, coerced to trade our privacy, health and bodily integrity for the opportunity to participate in civil society.

Now, the argument that these mandates can be dropped because we have achieved “hybrid immunity” trivialises the severe implications of these harmful lockdowns and mandates.

It also glosses over the fundamental shortcomings of COVID-19 vaccines and mandates, which ultimately failed to fulfill their central promise: preventing the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Conclusion

If the proposal to allow unvaccinated workers to return to employment with South Australia Health is accepted, we can’t wait to see if the declaration-signing becomes part of the new process for would-be unvaccinated South Australia employees.

One can imagine vaccine-refusers trying to hold back their laughter as they sign this declaration acknowledging they had been advised of the “proven benefits” of COVID-19 vaccination.

What would these “proven benefits” or the evidence underpinning them even look like?

In 2024, explaining the “proven benefits” of COVID-19 vaccination might not be an easy task, but may read something like this:

“If you do not take this COVID-19 vaccine, you are making an active decision to forgo its benefits such as maybe being protected against serious illness and death, if only for a limited time, from a disease with an infection-fatality-rate comparable with, or less than influenza, provided you stay up-to-date with booster shots every three months, which may offer protection against serious illness and death…in mice.”

In all seriousness, potential South Australia Health employees would be wise to think about the consequences of signing a declaration which acknowledges “proven benefits” of COVID-19 vaccination.

By signing a legal document acknowledging they had been informed of the proven benefits of COVID-19 vaccinations, health workers would officially be on record. This could potentially be used in various ways, such as in disciplinary proceedings, if they were to act contrary to this acknowledgment.

When Disease X happens, the declaration could potentially be used as a basis for employment decisions, including hiring or continued employment, especially in roles that involve high risk of transmission.

We will watch this space.

1. Dadds, C., “SA Health set to dump mandatory Covid vaccinations, to consult staff on changes”, https://archive.md/TaQA3#selection-757.0-757.79, accessed 15 April 2024.

2. Attwell, K. and Kaufman, J., “NSW may end its COVID vaccine mandate for health workers. That doesn’t mean it was a bad idea in the first place”, https://theconversation.com/nsw-may-end-its-covid-vaccine-mandate-for-health-workers-that-doesnt-mean-it-was-a-bad-idea-in-the-first-place-226732, accessed 15 April 2024.

3. Liu, B., Stepien, S., Dobbins, T., Gidding, H., Henry, D., Korda, R., Mills, L., Pearson, S. A., Pratt, N., Vajdic, C. M., Welsh, J., & Macartney, K. (2023). Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination against COVID-19 specific and all-cause mortality in older Australians: a population based study. The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific, 40, 100928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2023.100928

4. Bobrovitz, N., Ware, H., Ma, X., Li, Z., Hosseini, R., Cao, C., Selemon, A., Whelan, M., Premji, Z., Issa, H., Cheng, B., Abu Raddad, L. J., Buckeridge, D. L., Van Kerkhove, M. D., Piechotta, V., Higdon, M. M., Wilder-Smith, A., Bergeri, I., Feikin, D. R., Arora, R. K., … Subissi, L. (2023). “Protective effectiveness of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and hybrid immunity against the omicron variant and severe disease: a systematic review and meta-regression”, The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 23(5), 556–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00801-5