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A group of about 150 Covid-19 vaccinated and unvaccinated people made their feelings known about the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers in Gore on Saturday.
The crowd gathered at Gore Hospital to protest the lack of choice healthcare workers have regarding whether they receive the vaccination or not.
The Government has mandated that health and disability workers must receive their first dose of the vaccine by 11.59pm, November 15, 2021.
They must receive their second dose by January 1, 2022.
A lone security guard watched from the hospital’s grounds as the well-behaved group chatted and laid lilies on the hospital front garden. After about 20 minutes they walked to the children’s playground on the corner of Eccles and Main Sts.
Two hours later the crowd had dispersed.
Balfour resident Dave Witherow said New Zealand used to be a free country.
“Now it is a medical dictatorship,” he said.
Linda Clement, of Gore, said healthcare workers should be able to choose what medical procedures they received.
“At the moment there is no choice.”
Neither Mr Witherow nor Mrs Clement were anti-vaxxers, they said.
Lauren Gutschlag said she was concerned about her mother who, after a nearly 40-year nursing career, was faced with the prospect of losing her job because she did not want to be vaccinated.
“She wants to make the choice of what she wants to put in her body. She doesn’t want to be told that she could lose her job because she doesn’t want to take something that has now been mandated.”
Gore Hospital chief executive Karl Metzler said the focus of the organisation was on the “95% of vaccinated, courageous and amazing Gore Health staff who remain committed to providing health services to the people of Eastern Southland”.