While announcing a deal with Oxford University to produce a Covid19 vaccine locally if trials succeed, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison intimated that Australians may not have the ability to opt out of getting it, once ready.
Morrison told radio station 3AW in Melbourne that his government has set a 95% vaccination rate goal, with exceptions only for medical reasons.
“I would expect it to be as mandatory as you could possibly make it,” Morrison said. “There are always exemptions for any vaccine on medical grounds, but that should be the only basis. We are talking about a pandemic that has destroyed the global economy and taken the lives of hundreds of thousands all around the world, and over 430 Australians here.”
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters he expects there to be a “strong” number of Australians who take the vaccine voluntarily because of Australian laws whereby parents who fail to fully immunize their children lose family tax credits and access to the government’s childcare subsidy program.
Photo by the Department of Defense