DOCTORS SLAM `SELFISHNESS' OF UNVACCINATED
Some doctors and nurses are frustrated with large groups of anti-vaccination protesters outside hospitals in cities across the country and say limited resources are being used to save the lives of those who decided not to protect themselves against COVID-19.
Dr. Steven Fedder, who works in the emergency room of a hospital in Richmond, B.C., said he has run out of patience for people whose stance against vaccines has larger societal implications.
“I think it's the ultimate selfishness that individuals choose not to vaccinate themselves. And I think they don't realize they are too arrogant to understand that we live in a society where we all have to make sacrifices,” he said.
It's time that more employers, including all levels of governments, started mandating vaccines to send a strong message to those ignoring the science behind vaccination, Fedder said, adding the potential of losing a job may be the jolt people need to get immunized.
Patients suffering from other serious illnesses are affected when the system starts to “grind to a halt” from the number of unvaccinated patients being hospitalized and occupying intensive care beds, Fedder said, noting people with chronic conditions often avoid going to emergency departments when cases spike, sometimes worsening their health.
“For the staff, it's exhausting. It's challenging when you have somebody come in who is there when there was a simple route to preventing what they came in with — a COVID infection. Our job is to be professional and not to be judgmental, but it's very trying for nurses and doctors and all the other healthcare professionals to look at somebody who made a conscious decision not to get vaccinated.”
Anti-vaccination sentiments have intensified since some provinces announced plans to require so-called vaccination passports to access places like restaurants, movie theatres and gyms. Quebec and Ontario began their programs this week and British Columbia starts in the coming weeks.
Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician at Kensington Health in Toronto, denounced a group of protesters outside the University Health Network earlier this week, and said they were disrupting patients and staff from entering the hospital.
“It's really hard to grasp why any group of people would be protesting outside of hospitals, where we have vulnerable people coming in to seek medical care,” said Arya, adding he has endured several months of online harassment and hate mail because of his pro-vaccine stance.
“I think people are getting really aggressive about the vaccine issue and I'm scared. I'm scared for my family, I have little children as well and I know many other colleagues in the same sort of boat as me have faced a lot of pushback.”