In an effort to “persuade” more citizens to receive vaccinations against the pandemic, the Greek government has now called forth the tool of direct threats. Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis went so far on Wednesday to claim that a employer has the right to fire an employee who is not vaccinated.
Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, Georgiadis said that companies have the right to lay off workers who have not been vaccinated.
He alleged that the owner of a big hotel sought him in his office and complained that “a small part of the staff does not want to vaccinated.”
“We concluded that we should inform the employees that for the safety of the company everyone should be vaccinated and whoever does not want to be vaccinated, should also bear the consequences of his decision,” the minister said adding that “a company cannot be in danger of closing down because an employee wants to exercise his supposed right not to be vaccinated.”
He said further that “under existing labor law, a company can fire an employee if the employee puts the company at risk.”
In his usual “all in one bag” claims and rhetoric, minister Georgiadis directly linked those who do not want to be vaccinated with conspiracy theories and Covid/vax-deniers and even attacked also islanders.
He pointed out at residents of tourist areas, such as Corfu and Samos, blaming them for their reluctance to be vaccinated and accusing them that their “reluctance is a negative advertisement for tourism.”
Georgiadis claimed while he did not mention that Greece accepts also not vaccinated tourists: “There is a mega vaccination center on Corfu and instead of 800 vaccinations per hour, only 5 take place. This is a disaster. You are in Corfu, you are waiting for tourists from Great Britain to come and be removed from the orange list, if you have one coronavirus case in Corfu everything shuts down, you are not going to be vaccinated.”
At least he admitted, even if half-hearted that the uncertainty about the vaccines is also due to failure of communication management.
The Greek government’s latest narrative on building a “wall of immunity” for the sake of tourism and for the sake of not having to spend any more money on the Covid-19 pandemic is to push all responsibility on the individual citizens.
The narrative became clear once the vaccination rollout started.
However, there are two major issues that have people staying away from Covid-vaccines:
1.The government failed to seriously address citizens’ concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine, especially after the death of one woman and a few cases of serious thrombosis incidents. [ Note: Cynically thinking, these cases may have been within the statistics 5-6 per 1 million vaccination. But this is a tiny comfort to those waiting for AZ vaccination, first or second dose. I was recently surprise to see people younger than 55 had changed their mind about vaccination in general saying “We will wait first, to see how things develop”]
2. Available vaccines are not enough and this is also the reason that any discussion on perks for vaccinated citizens are being postponed for early autumn.
Accusing the citizens for any wrongdoing and failure is the easy way for the government that still refuses to assume full responsibility for the management of the pandemic and uses blackmail and lies to scaremonger the citizens it considers as vassals and …sheep.
Institutionalized racism? Thanks, but no thanks!
PS I suppose trade unions are now digging deep into labor laws to check how far Georgiadis’ threats can be materialize. Worth noting that the food service sector rebuked the Prime Minister who spoke of “Covid-Free restaurants” yesterday.
“Only if vaccination rates are very high, restaurant and bar owners may consider to turn away not vaccinated customers,” they said adding that “a law would be needed to give them the right to turn away customers.”
Greece can either win those with doubts round, or threaten them so much that the doubts will grow and spread, especially if boosters are later required.
The government’s communication strategists (if they have any?) need sacking, whether vaccinated or not.
I find it interesting that 77 years ago this week young men, almost all of them unwilling conscripts, invaded France in order to rid the world of a very significant problem.
Today, all we’re being asked to do is accept a safe vaccine (look at the numbers) in order to rid the world of another significant problem, by denying it hosts in which it can mutate into something more serious.
Are we really saying that any small risk from the vaccine is worse for us than the risk those young men faced storming the Normandy beaches?
Don’t think only of yourself, do it for everyone else. They did.
Agreed. I mentioned this in another thread and got told to “sod off”. Which is exactly what I plan to do.
Well said Tony
When I was a kid we all got vaccinated for a couple of things, polio and tuberculosis.
Both the vaccines had side effects, nobody told our parents about them, and back in those days vaccine development was in its infancy.
Of course the medical profession knew the side effects, so why didn’t they tell about them?
Because they knew then as they know now that the benefits out weigh the miniscule risk of a serious side effect.
So what’s changed.
The internet and social media have come along, with all the fake news going around about cospisary theroys, and non scientific statements made.
For me the frightening thing is that people actually believe it.
The ability to think for yourself and not to look at the bigger picture is disappearing.
Of course people have freedom of choice, as they should, they say that it’s discriminating to allow vaccinated people special privileges, well it is also discrimination to make vaccinated people traveling to other countries pay for a COVID test, not to protect themselves, but to protect the minority of people who refuse to be vaccinated, the door swings both ways
You do not know the science, so do not pretend that you do. Those of us who read medical journals and follow the debates are less sanguine about using vaccines that have been given emergency authorisation because they have not been tested anywhere near enough. There is no comparison with older vaccines. You are just accepting the official line, as opposed to following the conspiracy theories. Both are wrong, and for similar reasons: they are not based on reliable science.
Excellent George
People are not doing any research. As for comparing these covid vaccines with old vaccines is complete nonsense.
Two very good articles and it puts everything into the right perspective.
Do you all really know what went on with the older vaccines?how quickly they were rolled out?The Smallpox vaccine was very hit and miss until the doctor/scientist got it right way way back in the old days.Covid 19 and all its variants,mutations etc…are here to stay,they are cast offs from the Spanish Flu in 1018 as are the various types of winter flu we have all come to know and expect every year and which do kill people every winter including sometimes younger people.We get them lasting one day,sometimes seven days,all variants.This new set of variants will eventually be assimilated like all the rest into our biological systems and largely our bodies will adapt and learn to defend themselves over time but time is the crucial factor in all of this and being humans we are looking for a quick painless fix which requires many factors to succeed.
I meant to type…1918….