D-Day for unvaccinated teachers and health workers

D Day will not be some kind of December 1st Freedom Day. Instead, this coming Tuesday is the first deadline for health and education workers to have had their first vaccine dose, and their second by the 1 January. The Government has made it clear that “from the 1st of January, teachers need to be fully vaccinated if they’re coming back into the classroom next year.” We think this is unfair and unnecessary, but the Government seems committed to a “no jab, no job” policy.

So we’ve created the petition ‘Don’t Divide Us” in which we call on the Government to allow the use of COVID rapid antigen testing as an alternative for unvaccinated kiwis. Sign here.

Under the Government’s proposed “no jab, no job” policy, New Zealanders may be excluded from their teaching or nursing job, or sporting career, or going to their marae, going to church or the mosque or the gym or hair salon, university to study, weddings, visiting family members in prison, and attending events, because they have chosen out of good conscience not to be vaccinated.

Minister Chris Hipkins put it bluntly today, saying …

“Those who are not fully vaccinated between now and the end of the year, and need to have a weekly test until they are fully vaccinated.

“And then of course, from the 1st of January, teachers need to be fully vaccinated if they’re coming back into the classroom next year.”

Red RNZ article here.

Make sure you sign our petition –  ‘Don’t Divide Us”