Health authority ‘disheartened’ as hairdresser bans COVID-vaccinated clients

A hairdresser in south-west Victoria has come under fire from a local health authority for saying she won’t accept customers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Melinda Thackeray, who owns Melinda Diva’s Hair & Tanning Salon near Colac, a town that endured one of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus in regional Victoria last year, made the announcement on Facebook.

Barwon Health has criticised the move, saying there is no scientific basis for a business to ban customers who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ms Thackeray’s Facebook post stated that she “will not be taking any COVID-vaccinated clients”.

Spike proteins are small shards containing a carbohydrate, such as a sugar molecule, that protrude from coronavirus cells and play a role in how the viruses infect their hosts.  

Ms Thackeray’s posts announcing her stance attracted disclaimers from Facebook, which noted that “COVID-19 vaccines go through many tests for safety and effectiveness and are then monitored closely”.

Ms Thackeray’s Facebook profile contains links to unproven COVID-19 treatments, claims COVID-19 is a “scam”, anti-lockdown sentiments, and a post referring to a vaccination centre as a “mass depopulation hub”.

‘Unscientific and disheartening’

Callum Maggs, an infectious diseases physician with Barwon Health, said Ms Thackeray’s stance was “disheartening to be honest, given how much hard work we’re doing to work on vaccine hesitancy in the public”.

“If anything, I would have thought it would have been the other way around, with businesses trying to ban people that hadn’t been vaccinated, especially in a spot that was hit so hard during the second wave,” Dr Maggs said.

“It’s basically impossible to be infected with a spike protein on its own given there’s no viral machinery there to replicate a living virus and cause an infection.

“What we’re trying to target is the general public that have genuine or reasonable fears that come from a lack of understanding around how vaccines in general work and, in particular, how the COVID vaccines work.”

Dr Maggs said the hairdresser’s views were in the minority, especially in the Colac area.

“I don’t think it represents the greater community in Colac because we saw how well Colac responded to their outbreaks and how good Colac citizens were in getting tested, isolating and following department advice,” he said.

The ABC has been unable to contact Ms Thackeray for comment.

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