Plenty of bizarre things that have happened this past couple of years. But this one beats them all – for me at least. I first heard about it when a friend sent me a youtube video of someone in the UK making fun of something in Australia. Namely NSW State Emergency Services (SES).
With all the floods going on at the moment people all over the place are being evacuated. You would expect that the SES were prepared to accept any volunteers that were fit and capable of lending a hand. Right?
Wrong!
It seemed that volunteers to help the SES were being turned away if they have not been “fully vaccinated” with the covid vaccine(s). I couldn’t believe it. Well, what can you believe these days? On the mainstream media, never mind “social” media eh? So in the true spirit of investigative journalism I decided to ask the question on one of those forms on the NSW SES website. Oh, and because my son may not believe this when he is older, so here it is on the record….
Strap Yourself In…
I will let you make your own minds up but I do have some thoughts below… But first, here is their response.
Dear Chris
Thank you for your correspondence regarding mandatory vaccination for NSW SES members.
The NSW SES is unwaveringly committed to the safety of its citizens, and the protection of our emergency services personnel from COVID-19. The current storms and floods demonstrate how important it is to keep our emergency services personnel healthy, so they in turn can provide vital support to our communities.
As an employer, NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) also have a responsibility to ensure the safety of its staff and volunteers. NSW SES implemented a policy mandating COVID-19 vaccination for its members in November 2021 requiring all members be double-vaccinated by 17 December 2021.
Before any decision was made on mandatory vaccination, NSW SES undertook a COVID Safe Risk Assessment and consulted Members, the NSW SES Volunteer Association, and the NSW Public Service Association.
NSW SES Members were extensively consulted about the decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. More than 80% of respondents indicated they would feel safer if vaccination was mandated for NSW SES Members.
NSW SES continues to consider applications for medical contraindications of staff and volunteers if submitted via the NSW Heath COVID-19 contraindications form available at health.nsw.gov.au. Special waiver arrangements for staff are considered on a case by case basis.
Please be assured that the ability of the NSW SES to continue to meet the needs of the community which we serve has not been impacted by the mandatory vaccination requirements for its members.
I hope that this advice has helped address the issues that you raised.
Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to the NSW SES’s attention.
Regards
WHS Team
I deliberately highlighted part of that reply in red: “NSW SES Members were extensively consulted about the decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. More than 80% of respondents indicated they would feel safer if vaccination was mandated for NSW SES Members.”
There is an old saying that goes something like this: ‘That is the right answer to the wrong question’. In this case that saying is very true.
I am quite sure at the height of the panic and fear-mongering that 80% of people might ‘feel safer’ if everyone around them was vaccinated for a (supposedly) deadly & highly contagious disease. And they only “indicated” that they would feel safer. They may well have also thought/said that they are not really bothered.
But now?
- When everyone knows that being vaccinated makes virtually no difference: The incidence of covid “cases” has been way higher since there has been 95% (we are told) of the population vaccinated, than before. Those figures are out there. The “official” NSW Health data, not mine…
- When we all now that it is not the deadly disease we were told.
Why don’t they take that question back to the same people again? After all, things like this in work unions regularly get taken back to their members. Better still, perhaps they should ask a different question. Like, ‘Do you care if anyone else working to save lives and fight fires/floods (or any other disaster) has been vaccinated against covid – or any other disease come to think of it?’ Yeah. That would be better question.
As a rider they could ask a second question: ‘Are you ok in shops, pubs, supermarkets and generally walking around the streets knowing there are unvaccinated people out there?’ Because, of course, that is exactly what is going on.
Even more amazing is this. The people that the emergency services volunteers will now be rescuing from flooded houses may not be vaccinated. Or are the stupid f*#kers asking them before attempting to save them? Maybe they are and maybe they are leaving them to fend for themselves. Best of all, are the people being rescued asking the SES team if they are “fully vaccinated”? Imagine the scenario…
“What? You are not? Then get that f*#cking helicopter hoist off me and f*#k off. Send me a fully vaccinated volunteer or I’ll just stay here and drown. And by the way; make sure the helicopter has been fully deep cleaned.”
And why not? After that email, I now think anything is possible. Really!
Don’t get burnt…
So unvaccinated cannot help to fight deadly fires either. It all falls under the same banner. But you can presumably have herpes, AIDS, maybe good old fashioned TB or any other disease, and they are not at all interested. As long as you have taken the covid jab(s).
Next summer if you are caught in a bushfire with flames leaping up your clothes, and someone from the SES comes to hose you down, please be sure to check that they are “fully vaccinated” before they put out the fire.
I’m not even going to go into any of the rest of that email response… Make your own minds up. In fact, feel free to go onto the NSW SES website and file your own online question…