Since December, I have only been asked for the green tick once, and it was at one of my three GP visits. Haven’t been asked once at bars, restaurants, retail stores - nowhere. We’re in QLD, but this includes a Christmas in Adelaide, where we ate out quite often.

I’d like to be clear that I recommend vaccination to every single one of my patients and continue to do so. If the public and businesses believed in the mandates enough to enforce them, maybe I could see them as making a positive difference. However, if venues are so uncomfortable enforcing vaccine checks, I truly believe this is doing more harm than good, for the following reasons:

1. It negates the safety benefits of having vaccination only venues

2. The people who are more likely to flaunt the rules, since they aren’t enforced, are those who most likely are careless in other areas of their health, making them both vulnerable to severe outcomes from catching the virus and also becoming a super spreader as they move around potentially not practicing social distancing and mask wearing.

3. The reluctance of businesses to enforce these rules may also make them less likely to enforce other safety and hygiene practices that also curb the spread of covid; practices such as cleaning, hand sanitisation, mask enforcement, social distancing enforcement.

4. It is further alienating unvaccinated individuals into more extreme views as it reduces their exposure to social interactions where their views could be naturally moderated. This alienation may also cause people to delay symptomatic presentations to healthcare, leading to even worse outcomes from covid infection.

What are your thoughts and experiences? I’m fully prepared for a very wide range of opinions here.