As we know, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has been pushing national cabinet to mandate vaccine boosters.
On Sunday, Andrews claimed his hardline vaccine stance was based on the “advice of experts”, and hinted at future mandates for fourth and fifth vaccine doses:
“I’ll follow the advice of experts and I think we’re very close to a situation where the relevant federal authorities will determine that three doses is what’s considered fully protected. As for fourth and fifth, let’s wait and see how this goes”.
“There has already been some mandating done for third doses and there will be more. Whether that’s popular or not, that’s not my concern. Politics doesn’t work against this virus, you’ve got to make difficult decisions, and then push forward from there.”
Yesterday, the first public hearing of Victorian state parliament’s pandemic declaration accountability and oversight committee was held, with Victoria’s Chief Health Officer (CHO), Brett Sutton, admitting that he has not been consulted on booster vaccine mandates:
“I haven’t been requested to provide advice on broader vaccine mandates at this stage,” Professor Sutton said.
“When and if I get a request from the (health) minister for advice on those potential measures, I’ll be very happy to assess the epidemiological situation of that time and to provide my recommendations on how that might change, if at all.”
On 10 January, the advice of acting Victorian CHO, Ben Cowie, was that booster mandates were not required:
“I have considered a consistent one-size-fits-all approach to vaccination mandates for all workforces and even for the general community but, at this time, I do not consider this to be a proportionate response”.
Since then, Victoria’s COVID cases have plummeted, with the Omicron wave petering out on its own:
Clearly, Dan Andrews’ dogged push for booster mandates is not based on the “advice of experts”, but rather politics and his own megalomaniac tendencies. Otherwise, why wasn’t the CHO consulted first before devising such a draconian policy?
