This is the Guardian.

Today, two women, both skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccine,

feel the pressure from vaccine mandates and make very different decisions.

Julie has lived in the Australian city of Melbourne for five decades. She spent the past 10 years

working at a law firm there. I was a receptionist and just looking after our corporate clients,

making sure that they were comfortable, that they were looked after with catering needs and

Wi-Fi and anything that was technical, we would support them.

She's one of those people who just keeps the place running. She's warm and kind and the work suited her.

I love working with people and I was told by my management that I was doing a great job.

I thought I had a great life and things have changed very dramatically in a way that I would never have

thought or even dreamed or imagined. When COVID arrived, Julie, like many people, was sent home from

her job. Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, has experienced the longest COVID lockdowns of any

city in the world. The state government is desperate not to send people home again and hopes the

vaccine is the answer. Technically, the jab is voluntary, but unvaccinated people face some of the

most extensive restrictions in the world, including Julie, who's been reluctant to get her shots.

And so, while the rest of Melbourne has been getting on with things, Julie's life has been

unhauled. She can't go to cafes, cinemas, bookshops. It makes things like visiting her mum,

age 93, in her nursing home, impossible. I can't step foot inside of her nursing home. I used to be

able to go there every weekend, cook her breakfast in their spare kitchen there at the nursing home

with her favourite food that she used to miss. That's all gone now.

When the state opened up a few months ago, the Victorian government made it clear that vaccines

would be mandatory in offices like Julie's. And she got a call from her employer, saying they'd

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