Technical issues in the booster certificates are putting business more on hold
Blog post by Marica Micallef
While the Labour media is trying to depict the situation for the businesses as normal after the government restrictions came into force, owners and patrons of restaurants and gyms are having a different opinion. For them, the situation is far from normal. What follows is an angry comment on Facebook from a person who owns a gym. Her post depicts the situation that gym owners are facing because of government measures.
From this post, it is clear that this gym owner is angry and frustrated about the fact that not only now does she have to allow only vaccinated clients in, thus losing those clients who decided not to take the vaccine, but that the app on which she must verify this, is not working.
Lovin Malta has already highlighted that there are technical issues since “the system through which certificates are issued is malfunctioning in some cases.”[1]
Needless to say, this will produce more delays for gym owners and other businessmen to get their business ramped up. It is clear that the government and the health authorities are creating more stumbling blocks for such businesses to do so. And then they keep on insisting that it is up in the public’s hands to better the economy, and it is only by taking the booster that this will happen. However, the government is admitting its own failure as now it is trying to give the impression that business has remained as usual, despite the fact that these regulations came into force.
Needless to say, this is either another normal bureaucratic case of inefficiency and incapability that plagues this country, or it is another way of coercing the public to take the booster or both!
While I understand the anger and the frustration of the gym owner above, I think that there are only two ways for gym owners and other businesses to keep their business going: either to scrap the certificate and allow all clients in or to come up with new creative ideas where they can cater for both: like the director of M&P Fitness Marc Patton has decided to do and offer outdoor group fitness classes regardless of vaccination status, in a bid to refuse to discriminate.[2]
So, I encourage business owners to think outside the box and cater to everyone, despite these stupid discriminatory rules, which, unless reinforced, can be twisted to suit one’s needs. Moreover, in the scenario that the number of clients diminishes due to vaccine-induced injuries, the businesses won’t have any other solution than to open their doors to everyone again. In business, this is known as the halo effect, that is, the way humans are influenced by perceptions about something which appears to be positive, even if in truth it is not.
[1] https://lovinmalta.com/news/malta-new-vaccine-rules-technical-certificate-issues/
[2] https://lovinmalta.com/malta/we-refuse-to-discriminate-one-of-gozos-biggest-gyms-is-offering-outdoor-classes-for-unvaccinated-people/