Malta introduces apartheid: businesses have started discriminating against non-vaccinated

BLog post by Marica Micallef

The divide between the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated that the local Health Authorities and the media started, is now spreading to the business. A case in point is Splash and Fun Car Park. This evening, this park will be hosting the final football Euro 2020 game between Italy and England live on a massive screen. Their poster reads “Seated Event and Split into two bubbles MUST BE FULLY VACCINATED”.  In other words, only those fully vaccinated will be allowed in.

Since when do establishments have the right to decide who is allowed to enter on not, based on medical information? Isn’t this discriminatory practice? Up till now, the non-vaccinated people were being allowed in. But are these types of measures healthy for the business community? I am sure that within the same family there will be individuals who are vaccinated and non-vaccinated. What is such a message stating? That families and friends are going to be segregated according to whether they are vaccinated or not to watch the game? In truth, with such type of measurements, establishments might be also pushing out even vaccinated people as they would not want to separate from their non-vaccinated relatives or friends. One needs to remember that in a family, there can be people who have not received the jab, because of age or due to medical reasons.

Isn’t the government guilty of creating public aversion against those people who have opted not to take the vaccine, including pregnant women and those who for medical reasons, cannot take the vaccine, an aversion which is now being shown by certain businesses?

On the same note, an owner of a salon whose name I am concealing, posted an important notice on Facebook stating that as from now on, clients who host students or run an English school, have to provide a vaccination certificate when making an appointment. The owner of the salon kept on specifying that “those clients who do not present the vaccination certificate, with heavy heart, I have to say that they are not allowed in the salon”.

Are the local health authorities happy with creating an unnecessary stigma? Stigma in history were created by this type of attitude and bigotry. Don’t the authorities think that they, together with the media, are to blame for all this? If businesses continue to collapse, the social divide will increase and not decrease. Then, this type of negative attitude will become even more dangerous. Unfortunately history teaches that when businessmen realize what they have created with their segregation measures, it will be too late. Then it is useless to say “mia culpa” and that they are ready to take responsibility. The damage would have been done.

I think it is time for the non-vaccinated to choose wisely those businesses which will allow them entry and accept them whole heartedly. I think it is time that we realise that the great civil rights battle of our times is the fight against this new medical apartheid that is taking shape. With its policies, the government is segregating people on the bases of their private healthcare decisions. It is the time for people to unite and file lawsuits and protest against ANY ENTITY infringing upon their medical privacy and inalienable rights.

This is pure apartheid. In the past, apartheid divided humanity on creed, race and sexual orientation. The modern apartheid is going to divide humanity on the basis of their medical characteristics and choices.