There are so many horrible government reactions to Flu Manchu across the globe that when reports of the latest repressive measures spread on social media you’re inclined to believe them. However, one that’s not so much wrong but out-of-date is the one that Italy will prevent the unvaccinated from using banks:
In Italy if you are not #vaccinated you CAN'T
-Work
-Study
-Enter a bank and take your money
-Enter a shop
-Have your hair cut
-Go out with your friends
-Go to the HospitalIf you are older than 50 years old the vaccine is MANDATORY.
Please help us
— Marco Caverni (@marcocaverni) January 5, 2022
Now those horrible measures were indeed in the draft decree before members of the Northern League got them taken out. Though the actual rules are bad enough:
Italy on Wednesday made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for people from the age of 50, one of very few European countries to take a similar steps, in an attempt to ease pressure on its health service and reduce fatalities.
The measure is immediately effective and will run until June 15.
Italy has registered more than 138,000 coronavirus deaths since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government had already made vaccination mandatory for teachers and health workers, and since October last year all employees have had to be vaccinated or show a negative test before entering the workplace.
Refusal results in suspension from work without pay, but not dismissal.
Wednesday’s decree toughens this up for workers over the age of 50 by removing the option of taking a test rather than vaccination. It was not immediately clear what the sanction would be for those flouting the rule, effective from Feb 15.
Snip.
Ministers from the right-wing League issued a statement distancing themselves from the over-50 vaccine rule, calling it “without scientific foundation, considering that the absolute majority of those hospitalised with Covid are well over 60.”
The League succeeded in softening a previous draft of the decree which proposed that only people with proof of vaccination or recent infection could enter public offices, non-essential shops, banks, post-offices and hairdressers.
The final decree ruled that these venues will remain open to the unvaccinated so long as they can show a negative test.
With Omicron markedly less deadly than previous not-terribly-deadly variants, all this Draconian Covid Theater is destroying lives an livelihoods to accomplish nothing in particular. All should be dispensed with, but here’s once case where the actual rules aren’t quite as bad as rumor would leave you to believe.
Tags: banking, coronavirus, Italy, Mario Draghi, Northern League (Italy), Regulation
Sadly, this report is likely both out of date **and** premature.
Give it a few months. Once the most recent restrictions fail, worse ones are sure to follow.
The logic of authoritarianism demands that those in power never admit they were wrong. They’ll double down soon enough.