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Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has overseen one of the world's harshest and anti-freedom lockdownsAsanka Ratnayake / Getty Images

MELBOURNE, Australia (LifeSiteNews) – COVID-19 booster shots will be mandatory for workers in Australia’s state of Victoria.  

During a press conference on Monday morning, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced his government’s strategy to implement booster shots was an essential part of Victoria’s “vaccinated economy.” 

While addressing reporters in his routine media meeting, Premier Dan Andrews announced, “It will be in everybody’s interests, all of us, for the health and safety, for the health system, and of course to continue participating in the vaccinated economy —  you will need to have a booster shot.” 

Andrews said that the “vaccinated economy will operate across the board.”  

“Two doses, or you’re not getting in [to the state]. Two doses, or you’re not going to work.  This is absolutely critical,” he continued. 

The premier then revealed that boosters would be “just as important as the first and second” shots. 

 “We will retain the vaccinated economy,” he stated.  

“All those requirements, all those settings where you only get in if you are double-vaxxed – and you can tap and verify that for everybody – that vaccinated economy is here to stay.” 

 

In a media briefing in August, World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan rejected calls for COVID-19 booster shots, saying that data “is not conclusive.” 

“We also don’t know about the safety of boosters,” she continued, “because when we talk about vaccines, it’s not just the efficacy. [W]hat happens … when you give a third dose of an mRNA vaccine or any other kind of vaccine?” 

Controversy surrounding booster shots come amid a wave of breakthrough cases in highly-vaccinated countries, where the experimental vaccines have increasingly  failed  to prevent death or serious illness  against COVID-19 variants and have been linked to unprecedentedly high, frequently  fatal, adverse reactions such as Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE). 

Andrew’s intention to establish a “vaccinated economy” within Australia’s second most populous state has gained international notoriety, particularly due to his willingness to use unprecedented, authoritarian tactics to force compliance with public health orders. This includes mandatory vaccinations as a condition of employment and other essential freedoms, such as visiting family members, exercising or attending places of worship. 

Andrews then turned his attention to the state’s plan to ease restrictions in November after the indefinite lockdowns that have plagued Victorians since the COVID outbreak in 2019. He then emphasized the necessity of his comprehensive “door-to-door” program to achieve “90 percent” vaccination rates, explaining that these measures were necessary to prevent further outbreaks. 

The Premier’s new ‘roadmap to freedom’ follows the booster announcement by Lieutenant General John Frewen, the head of Australia’s vaccine taskforce. Frewen explained that the decision on booster shots was imminent, pending an agreement between the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and US vaccine manufacturer Pfizer. 

“We think what’s going to happen is that a booster shot will be made available six months from your second dose,” Frewen revealed, “So we’ll work the priority groups in the very first instance – aged and disability care, frontline workers, those sorts of areas.” 

When asked whether Victoria’s government was able to achieve their ambitious vaccination targets, Frewen stated “There’ll be nine million doses of Pfizer in each month for the rest of the year. We will get two million doses of Moderna this month, and then we’re expecting three million doses of Moderna recurring for the rest of the year as well.” 

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.