The body representing the country's doctors says any who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 shouldn't be allowed to practise.
The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) says it's not just an ethical obligation, but could be a legal one now, after a case involving a port worker who refused to be vaccinated.
"From the perspective of health and safety, workers and employers have a duty of care to the people they do business with as well as the wider community," NZMA chair Alistair Humphrey told Newshub.
"Essentially it is an ethical decision on behalf of doctors. Their first priority is the wellbeing of their patients... what has changed the situation is the Employment Relations Authority's review of [frontline] workers."
The Government's COVID-19 Public Health Vaccination Order 2021 (Vaccination Order) earlier this year made it a requirement that border workers on the front line be vaccinated, to reduce the risk of the virus making it across the border. A port worker employed by Customs recently challenged that - dismissed after refusing to get vaccinated, she argued there were no health and safety reasons she couldn't continue in the role.
The Employment Relations Authority sided with Customs, saying it had conducted a thorough health and safety risk assessment and made the call that the role could be occupied by vaccinated people only, according to the Government's order.
Dr Humphrey says the order should also apply to doctors, who are at high-risk of contracting the virus which causes COVID-19 from patients and passing it onto others who might be immunocompromised.
"They've basically said if MIQ workers are not vaccinated, they shouldn't be working at all," said Dr Humphrey. "The reason for that is because a) they're vulnerable to infection, and b) they can spread it into the community. The consequences for a doctor getting COVID is not only that they spread it into the community, but they also may transmit it to their vulnerable patients."
A number of doctors have recently made headlines for making claims about COVID-19 and the vaccines - the mRNA-based vaccines like Pfizer's in particular - that go against the grain.
Wellington-based Matt Shelton had his contract terminated and is under investigation by the Medical Council, after he sent a text to patients saying he wouldn't be recommending the vaccine to "pregnant and fertile women". Peter Canaday, until recently employed by the Taranaki District Health Board, took part in a two-hour video call with misinformation group Voices for Freedom where he made numerous claims not backed up by mainstream science.
Both are members of NZ Doctors Speaking out with Science, which has promoted unproven medicines and shared videos urging for vaccinated people to be quarantined and called the vaccine rollout a "lottery for death".
Dr Humphrey says until the pandemic "passes", the COVID Vaccination Order should be extended to the wider medical profession.
"Until it does no doctor should see a patient unless that doctor is vaccinated against COVID-19."
