Owner and executive chef of OTIS in Kingston, Damien Brabender and AHA ACT General Manager Anthony Brierley. Photo: Dominic Giannini.
As the ACT emerges from lockdown into whatever post-pandemic normal looks like, we’re wrestling with questions over mandatory vaccination in some frontline jobs.
Health care workers are now required to be vaccinated, as are disability workers and others who work with vulnerable people. But should the government mandate vaccinations in these areas?
“Yes, mandates are important to protect the young and the vulnerable. With such a high rate of community takeup in the ACT, the decision to vaccinate shouldn’t be an issue. Despite all the ‘Freedom Days’, this pandemic has not burned out and is still a risk for the vulnerable,” Aldith Graves wrote.
David Duncan said: “No to COVID passports as well. Don’t need papers to cross town. We aren’t China or the USSR.”
We asked, Are you comfortable with mandatory vaccinations? A total of 1,498 people voted.
Your choices to vote were No, it’s unnecessary and we should make our own choices. This received 32 per cent of the total, or 486 votes.
Alternatively, you could choose Yes, our collective right to health is the greater good here. This received 68 per cent of the total, or 1012 votes.
This week, we’re wondering how restaurant owners cope with no-shows, especially while there are still dining restrictions. Like many other restaurants, Kingston restaurant OTIS Dining Hall is currently restricted to just 25 guests, not enough to cover costs, but worth doing to get staff back to work and return to some kind of normality.
But one night recently, 10 out of 25 booked guests – or 40 per cent of the restaurant capacity – failed to arrive.
Daisy Chain wrote: “That really is disappointing; shows their ignorance. These guys haven’t had income for so long and to have people book their limited places and not turn up is unforgivable. Selfish. It’s just a phone call”.
But Yinan Zhang noted: “People are hesitant and flakey post lockdown as they are often two minds about things: the risk and benefit of going out, to spend or not to spend as they too may have been affected by lockdown. Perhaps they have also fallen onto a bad schedule/habit and find it hard to make themselves get to places on time. Lockdown just ended, give people a chance.”
OTIS restaurant owner Damien Brabender noted that “even when restaurants charge deposits and holding fees, some people demand it to be refunded and threaten the business with negative online reviews. The issue is not a lack of process, the issue is the lack of respect shown to service industries”.
Our question this week is:
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