Health Minister Richard Renouf spoke out on behalf of the government to address some of the fears being expressed on social media and elsewhere.
He said, for example, that the government had no intention of forcing people to have vaccinations, a fear sparked amid wider unease about the wording contained in a consultation to update the Island’s public health law.
Deputy Renouf said that plans to update the 1934 Public Health Law would only give the government powers to introduce extraordinary emergency measures as a ‘last resort’ and that ‘it is not about forcible vaccination’.
Meanwhile, the JEP has learned that the government has abandoned an initiative through which heath staff were to be asked for their vaccination status.
The matter was raised among members of the Royal College of Nursing, with some nurses contacting the JEP to express their concern. In response to questions from this newspaper, a government spokesperson suggested that such a scheme had been mooted but had now been shelved.
Both issues emerged amid increasingly visible levels of disquiet about threats to civil liberties, which has led to protests in Jersey and around the world. Last weekend, more than 100 people marched through town at the so-called Freedom Rally to protest against restrictions.
The Public Health Law amendment proposals have sparked fears that government officials could be given rights to forcibly enter Islanders’ homes. Article 34 of the consultation states that a framework could be introduced which ‘enables action to be taken in situations where infection or contamination presents, or could present, significant harm to human health, and where voluntary co-operation is not forthcoming’.
Deputy Renouf said: ‘That [forced vaccination] was not contemplated and would never happen here. No one would want to propose that – that is definitely not part of the consultation.
‘It is about tightening up the sort of things that there is already power to do when dealing with infectious disease. Say, for example, there was a measles outbreak among children and a family was refusing to co-operate in a way that meant that infection might spread amongst a school population, provided it has reached a threshold which would be set out in law, government should have powers to act in the interests of public health and safety.’
Some non-pharmaceutical interventions have already been implemented during the pandemic, such as lockdowns and mandatory mask-wearing in indoor spaces which could result in criminal proceedings being brought against people who breach them.
The minister said: ‘The way the legislation was written was fine in 1934 but we need to update it. Covid showed us that. We were rushing around at the start drafting legislation with just days to consider it before it was approved.
‘I can understand why the wording [of Article 34] taken on its own and not looking at the wider headings and consultation might have caused some to be alarmed by it. The States Assembly are not going to pass a law that does not have appropriate safeguards in it and we, as ministers, are not going to propose laws like that.’
He added that plans to update the law were still at a very early stage and that further consultation would be carried out before the legislation was drafted and brought before the Assembly.
‘It is about key policies and really we are asking people to give us their views on whether there should be an avenue for government to intervene where there is a manifest risk to Islanders’ health,’
Deputy Renouf said. ‘There would be a threshold above which we can act. It might say that regulations have to be passed by the States before any action can taken, it might require a warrant to be obtained by the Bailiff and there would always be an appeals process. If we can get a better framework to powers to protect the Island in a public-health emergency then there would be a better understanding as to what powers should be made available to government and the processes as to how those powers are exercised.’
The first stage of the consultation ended yesterday but the minister said some submissions would still be allowed in the coming days. A second phase of the consultation would begin in the autumn, which will focus on what powers might need to be given and what safeguards would be in place before a draft law is written.
The draft law would need to be approved by ministers, reviewed by Scrutiny and put before the Assembly for approval. Deputy Renouf said that it was unlikely that the law would be tabled for debate before the next election in 2022.
