Obesity is a bigger downstream killer than this virus, and even a major risk factor for this virus. Surely if we're gonna have medical discrimination, it should be for anyone with a BMI over 30?

Thanks Campbell Newman and John Ruddick- We are blessed to have high quality contributors on OLO. Thanks for your article- it shows courage in an age of double speak. Thanks again.

If you need a good engineer Hasbeen sounds like he has a good skillset.

diver dan- I wasn't aware of the widespread homelessness in Sydney. Surely there needs to be a better solution than the police moving people on- in perpetual abuse. I'd like to see these resources put to better use. Give them an opportunity to grow in a direction of their choice if they put in the effort.

JBowyer and SilverInCanberra as well as many others making good contributions- Kudos

Steele Redux said- I understand vaccinated people can get and spread the virus albeit at far less numbers than the unvaccinated.

Answer- I was of the understanding that vaccinated people spread the virus at more or less the same rate as unvaccinated but I'll need to brave the contentious literature on this. It seems if anything the only people affected by not vaccinating is the ICU wards and the person themselves- there are also side effects of the vaccine to be considered- and the political dimension.

The Political Dimension.
No new strains would hit Australia if they created a hygenic seal around Australia's borders- and over time the current strains would die out with some quarantine measures. But the politicians are unwilling to take the necessary actions affecting a small number of people at the borders and prefer to impact a large number of people internally within Australia.

Armchair,

You mention that you don't cost the gov money by not being testsed.
Great point. Someone should look at the sweet deal private path labs have by rcvg $82.50 for each covid test they perform or claim to perform, with as I understand, no turnaround stipultions. I know of folk waiting 5 days for a result from a private lab and only 1 day when the test was performed in a public hospital. And thw private lab is paid double what the public hospital rcvs for the same test.

You also query

"is it ok for me to discriminate against the vaccinated"?

I suspect the answer is "yes" as vaccinations are not protected as far as I know under so called Human Rights or Anti Discrimination laws.

Works quite well in many EU nations e.g. Austria the original home of von Hayek and allows both business and society to open up in a safe manner (with FFP2 masks in public buildings, transport etc.).

Many workplaces including education demand vaccinated teachers/students then EU Cov cert. paper or smartphone based, and negative Covid tests for unvaccinated who must mask up (cafes, bars, hotels etc. also demand vaccination certificate)

Clever little nudge or carrot too, the Covid tests have been free from the state like vaccinations, now they ask user pay EUR28; economically sensible, ensuring responsibility and reducing state expenditure.

Dear Andras,

I understand and accept the epidemiological need to have different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

While some epidemiological requirements are absolute, such as the case with borders and quarantine, where the virus/variant is either in the community or is not, no shades of grey, the requirement to have different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people is only statistical - its purpose is to reduce the risk of unvaccinated people infecting other unvaccinated people, thus overwhelming hospitals.

What allows Austria to safely open business and society are therefore the rules, rather than their strictest enforcement at all costs. Nothing too significant would happen if 2-3 unvaccinated people managed to slip through and enter an unvaccinated function (which probably happens even despite the passports). While reasonable moderate enforcement measures might still be needed (should simple goodwill and trust on its own fail to work), the situation does not warrant such monstrous technology, that is worse even than the virus and which will be hard to get rid of even once the pandemic is over.