A COVID-19 Tyrant Doesn't Change its Spots
Governments continue their bullying campaign against those who refuse to bow down
As some of you may be aware, the Queensland state government has recently decided to garnish the wages of teachers and other school staff who declined COVID-19 vaccination. This decision is a childish and purely punitive move to further financially penalise people who refused to bow to unscientific and unethical government decree, not to mention intense political, social and media pressure.
See below my letter of objection to the Queensland Minister for Education, Grace Grace:
27th August, 2022
Dear Ms Grace,
I am writing to you to express my utter disgust at the decision to implement irrational, unethical, punitive, and frankly petty and spiteful salary reductions for Queensland teachers and other school staff who declined to accept COVID-19 vaccination.
As a former registered nurse (who, in the interests of full disclosure, surrendered my professional nursing registration with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency [AHPRA] in protest of their role in our abysmally poor pandemic response), I am absolutely horrified with the ways in which our governments, health bureaucracy and medicines regulators have bungled the pandemic response, in particular the use of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and the push to administer COVID-19 vaccines to babies and children.
The fundamental underpinnings of medical ethics rest on the concept of informed consent and the right to refuse treatment, even if said treatment is in the person’s best interests (the latter point being one which does not even apply to many healthy young people regarding COVID-19 vaccines). COVID-19 vaccine mandates were unethical and unscientific from the outset, and this has only become clearer with their abject failure in preventing infection and transmission of COVID-19, continually waning efficacy in reducing severe outcomes, the evolution of less pathogenic virus variants (Omicron), and the emergence of serious safety concerns (particularly in young, otherwise healthy people who are at a vanishingly small risk from COVID-19 itself).
Many people, evidently including many teachers and other school staff, exercised their fundamental human right to bodily autonomy and declined COVID-19 vaccination, at the cost of their jobs (among other things). Any reasonable person would now concede that these people were not only right to stand up for the supremely important ‘right to chose’, but that they have also been comprehensively vindicated when it comes to the ridiculous accusation that their choice alone would allow the continued spread of COVID-19, cause harm to their loved ones and the community, and ultimately prolong the pandemic.
The idea that you and your colleagues not only refuse to graciously admit your mistakes, but also continue to apply punitive and completely unjustified financial penalties to those teachers and school staff who have now returned to work, is shameful. How dare you treat these staff members in this manner?! As a Queensland politician, your role is to represent your constituents, not to rule over them and charge them with malicious penalties for refusing to bow down to baseless government edicts.
If you and your colleagues possess even a shred of self-awareness, humility or integrity you will reverse course on this incredibly poorly thought-out decision immediately. Do you really want this appallingly discriminatory policy to be your legacy?
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Laine Jolly.
Just when you think these despicable policy makers cannot possible get any worse (or more tyrannical), they go ahead and prove you wrong. This policy, and any others like it, have absolutely nothing to do with health (either of the individuals concerned, or the community) and must be rescinded as a matter of urgency. The survival of our society as we know it (or knew it) depends upon it.
I'm in favour of policitians' and bureaucrats' salaries being garnished to compensate teachers for their pain and suffering, and loss of income, due to malicious/incompetent public policies.