Fantastic discussion, as expected. I particularly agree with your views regarding approaching with empathy those with comparatively little power to push back against enforcing government edicts, BUT that this empathy does not extend to absolution for their role/s. Especially in the case of doctors, as you mentioned. The idea that, as a healthcare professional, the remedy to your own fear of economic loss can be to coerce your patients into medical procedures, is unconscionable and cannot be allowed to stand. Sadly, there are many doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals who have done just that.
Thanks Laine... If I remember rightly, you're a healthcare professional who was unable to continue in your career due to mandates, right? It would be unfair on people like you if we let all the business owners and healthcare professionals off the hook because they were in a tight spot, when others made the tough decision and took the hit. I agree, a balance of campassion and justice is warranted. Ultimately I hope we see healthcare professionals and business owners realise they have the power if they push back together, and some collective lawsuits might be a good option, as Paul Collits alluded to.
Yes, you are right. I was a registered nurse for 14 years. I was not working at the time of the mandates, but obviously could not return after that time. I surrendered my AHPRA registration a few months later in protest of the way healthcare professions and our regulators had so egregiously failed in our collective duty to patients. My husband was sacked from his job as a firefighter for declining vaccination. We often thought that if the many people we were aware of who objected to the mandates (whether vaccinated or not - who could forget Michael Gunner's infamous, unhinged "anti-mandate = anti-vax" speech) had remained united, things would have been different. Yet we do have substantial empathy and compassion for these people (the difference being that they did not coerce others, they presumably and very reasonably just worried they would be the ones left out on the limb bearing the severe consequences). But medicine is a vocation and I cannot abide healthcare professionals who breached essential ethical principles out of self-interest. I agree that there are some circumstances in which responsibility must be taken in a legal, even criminal context, such is the seriousness of these actions. I'm certainly not perfect, and I accept my husband and I were in a position which allowed us to make certain decisions others could not so easily make, but our lives have still been significantly and irreparably damaged. Yet we'd still do the same again. (Sorry for the long reply!)
Great work and developments, Rebekah; you are doing incredibly important work, and I'm sure I speak for many others when I say I am deeply grateful.
Look forward to listening to the interviews.
Thanks Jake!
Fantastic discussion, as expected. I particularly agree with your views regarding approaching with empathy those with comparatively little power to push back against enforcing government edicts, BUT that this empathy does not extend to absolution for their role/s. Especially in the case of doctors, as you mentioned. The idea that, as a healthcare professional, the remedy to your own fear of economic loss can be to coerce your patients into medical procedures, is unconscionable and cannot be allowed to stand. Sadly, there are many doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals who have done just that.
Thanks Laine... If I remember rightly, you're a healthcare professional who was unable to continue in your career due to mandates, right? It would be unfair on people like you if we let all the business owners and healthcare professionals off the hook because they were in a tight spot, when others made the tough decision and took the hit. I agree, a balance of campassion and justice is warranted. Ultimately I hope we see healthcare professionals and business owners realise they have the power if they push back together, and some collective lawsuits might be a good option, as Paul Collits alluded to.
Yes, you are right. I was a registered nurse for 14 years. I was not working at the time of the mandates, but obviously could not return after that time. I surrendered my AHPRA registration a few months later in protest of the way healthcare professions and our regulators had so egregiously failed in our collective duty to patients. My husband was sacked from his job as a firefighter for declining vaccination. We often thought that if the many people we were aware of who objected to the mandates (whether vaccinated or not - who could forget Michael Gunner's infamous, unhinged "anti-mandate = anti-vax" speech) had remained united, things would have been different. Yet we do have substantial empathy and compassion for these people (the difference being that they did not coerce others, they presumably and very reasonably just worried they would be the ones left out on the limb bearing the severe consequences). But medicine is a vocation and I cannot abide healthcare professionals who breached essential ethical principles out of self-interest. I agree that there are some circumstances in which responsibility must be taken in a legal, even criminal context, such is the seriousness of these actions. I'm certainly not perfect, and I accept my husband and I were in a position which allowed us to make certain decisions others could not so easily make, but our lives have still been significantly and irreparably damaged. Yet we'd still do the same again. (Sorry for the long reply!)
Yes I think our outlook overlaps significantly.
I think so, too. 💙
Thank you once again for your wonderful work, Rebekah. Can't wait to listen to your Stand Up interview. Robyn is absolutely brilliant!
Isn't she great... so articulate.
One of the best! Just like you.