Today, Newshub reports that the Health Minister slammed as "deliberate misinformation" a story "being spread through social media ... The Government is not making COVID-19 or any other vaccinations compulsory". He added while the Government will encourage NZ'ers to get vaccinated once one is available, it won't make it compulsory ... Andrew Geddis, a law professor at Otago University, told AFP Fact Check that the Government cannot - even under the COVID-19 Public Health Act - force anyone to be vaccinated as it would go against the NZ Bill of Rights.
What's the solution to this mess? Pay people to take the vaccine, argues Robert Litan at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He writes:
"It is not too early for policy makers to start thinking about paying for COVID vaccinations. All the discussions about how to prioritize who will be eligible for the vaccine pale next to the importance of getting enough people to take it to get to herd immunity. If we don’t get there, we could face a future of continued economic malaise, at best, or far worse if the pandemic recession / depression drags on until the virus doesn’t".