A Covid-19 testing centre at Northcote in 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell
A Covid-19 testing centre at Northcote in 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell
A nurse who lost her job because of the occupational Covid-19 vaccine mandate says she felt dismissed, invalidated and betrayed by the system in which she worked.
She said she was ultimately diagnosed with pericarditis.
She outlined a range of symptoms, including chest pain, from which she said she still suffered occasionally.
A Medsafe report from 2022 found the protective benefits of vaccination against Covid “far outweigh the potential risks of vaccination”.
Medsafe received adverse reports about Covid-19 vaccinations during the pandemic and regularly reported on their contents. One snapshot, reported by the Herald in November 2021, found that just over 6.6 million doses had been given, with an average of 49 out of every 10,000 people reporting an adverse event.
Napier said that, after her adverse reaction to the vaccine, she spoke to a cardiologist to get an exemption to keep her job, but was declined.
“I felt dismissed, I felt invalidated.”
She said her job, income and ability to provide for her children were on the line.
“I felt really betrayed, I trusted the system.”
Because she was not fully vaccinated, she was unable to keep her job at the local hospital, so she cleaned toilets to make ends meet.
She said the level of communication from the Government at the start of the pandemic was fantastic.
She appreciated the vaccine pass and said it was a useful step.
“Without the protections, I feel vulnerable.”
St John lost 1% of workforce due to mandates
St John’s John Mulheron speaking at the inquiry.
Hato Hone St John ambulance operations general manager John Mulheron said the organisation lost about 1% of its frontline workforce, a mix of volunteers, casuals or fulltime workers, once the vaccination mandate came in.
Since then, he said St John had “re-engaged” with a significant number of those people.
Generally, he said the mandate was good, but there were people for whom it was challenging.
Commissioners in that inquiry concluded that the vaccine mandates were “reasonable” for specific professions in 2021 but were applied “more broadly than envisaged” later that year, and the case for them weakened once Omicron became the dominant variant of Covid-19.
They also said lockdowns were an effective tool for managing elimination, but that the Government should have considered a broader range of factors when making decisions about the longest lockdown, in late 2021.
