Tempers flare on The Project over mandatory vaccinations
Tuesday night’s episode of The Project saw two hosts clash over mandatory vaccinations.
A disagreement between Kate Langbroek and Hamish McDonald played out on live television following a news segment about mandatory jabs for employees in some workplaces.
Langbroek shared that the pair had disagreed on the issue in an earlier off-air briefing.
“You weren’t calling me a gentleman at that point,” MacDonald said.
“Nearly everyone was (pro) mandatory vaccine, but I’m not mandatory vaccine for work,” Langbroek explained.
“I’m not anti-vax,” she admitted, “but I’m very uncomfortable prescribing mandatorily to people what they have to put in their bodies to work or participate in - I’m just not.”
She argued that her aversion may be due to her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness.
“They had the concept of disfellowshipping, which I find so repugnant. I hate the thought that people will be disfellowshipped from their lives because they have hesitation or doubts about the vaccination,” she said.
But, MacDonald countered that her doubts could be impacting others.
“So as an employer, you’re responsible not just to Kate, who might be cautious, you’re responsible to all your employees, right?” he said.
“If you let Kate continue to come into work, you can transmit it to us and then we can transmit it to our families. If you want to visit…”
“That’s when your vaccine has to do its work, mate!” Langbroek interrupted. “And my vaccine.”
“But the vaccine doesn’t prevent you from contracting the virus or transmitting it, it just reduces the likelihood that you will end up in hospital or that you will die,” MacDonald explained.
“The reality is, if someone comes to our workplace, gives it to me, I can take it to a residential aged care facility, where my father might be, and then spread it through there. I don’t want to do that,” he said.
“People bringing Covid into the workplace is not safe.”
Though Langbroek agreed with his point, she pressed that it shouldn’t be mandatory to get the jab.
“If you had the right to go into your workplace and feel protected, does someone else also not have the right to decide what they put in their body?”
The fiery conversation came to an end with Langbroek pointing out that she has had one dose of the vaccine and one of her children was vaccinated earlier that day.
Image: The Project / Channel 10