A Mixed Tale of COVID Response

University Health Network vaccination clinic for medical staff.  The Star

 

"Health-care workers in general should be vaccinated to protect themselves, their family and their patients."

"We know that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and we're seeing that across Ontario. They keep numbers coming down, and we're seeing improvements in terms of hospital capacity, ICU capacity."

"I think it's important to understand that we have flu vaccine campaigns and many flu vaccine protocols."

"It's institution-specific, but the vast majority of the [places] where I've worked do have a mandated policy for flu vaccines."

"I think anything that increases hesitancy or makes people more reluctant to pursue vaccinations should always be thought of as a potential side effect for any policy measure."

Dr.Adam Kassam, president, Ontario Medical Association

Humber River Hospital ER physician Dr. Tasleem Nimjee describes what the COVID-19 vaccine will mean for the health-care workers who’ve been on the front lines of the pandemic    CBC

"I believe it is not unreasonable that when you choose to work in health care, like any profession that includes certain bonafide occupational requirements, that you acknowledge that you will take vaccinations and tests that are required."

Isobel Mackenzie, Seniors Advocate, British Columbia

"When it comes to our health-care workers, I think it's really important that they're protected, not just for them and their families but also for the people that they treat. We don't want to have a situation where unvaccinated health-care workers are falling ill and then transmitting the virus to people they're treating."

"We're all human. I think the reasons behind people being uncertain about getting the vaccine have shifted. People are still influenced by family and culture. If you've been raised where your parents or grandparents may not necessarily believe in certain kinds of medications or vaccines, that can still influence people, even when they're science-literate and have that education."

Dr. Krishana Sankar, biologist, science communicator, COVID-19 Resources Canada

Personal support worker Michael Gellizeau gets a dose of COVID-19 vaccine from nurse practitioner Victoria Pierri at a clinic put on by the University Health Network in Toronto. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Many within the sphere of Canadian public health fully applaud the news that several countries now require their health-care workers to be vaccinated against COVID. Some epidemiologists and advocates don't hesitate to urge Canadian authorities to adopt similar measures in Canada -- while others feel concerned over mandatory shots' messages and how they will be received by their target audience.

In the U.S. the Department of Veterans Affairs was the first federal agency in the country to require employees be vaccinated. That has now been extended to all federal employees in the U.S. Greece and France both announced they will require working doctors, nurses and other professionals in the field of medicine to be vaccinated. Italy was ahead of the game with a similar mandate announced in April. In hours following the announcement, vaccination appointments increased in France.

Greece options unpaid suspension from work for any who fail to be inoculated against COVID, as health-care professionals. Quebec now requires oncologists to be vaccinated or to take three COVID tests every week, following a deadly outbreak in a Sherbrooke hospital cancer ward. In Ontario, staff at long-term care homes are required to be vaccinated or to have proof of medical exemptions. 

The largest hospital network in Ontario -- the University Health Network in Toronto -- states that any staff refusing vaccination must undergo mandatory and frequent testing. The province, however, still hesitates to ensure that vaccinations are picked up by health workers by enacting mandatory provisions. The majority of young adults contracting COVID-19 in the past three months in Ontario were unvaccinated.

Dr.Sankar is among several volunteers operating a twice-weekly Zoom call to listen to people with concerns about the COVID vaccine, responding to their questions. Anyone may use the service, despite that when it opened in January it was geared specifically to people working in long-term care homes. It seems puzzling that people exposed to science education through their profession would hesitate to become vaccinated, even though they have experienced harrowing episodes of sick and dying patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

"It's a complete slap to the face. I'm really just so confused why we're removing the only safety net we have left in place to protect everybody", stated Dr.Shazma Mithani who works at the Royal Alexandra Hospital emergency room in Edmonton, Alberta. She is responding to the news from the province that close contacts of confirmed COVID cases are no longer obligated to isolate, and from mid-August onward isolation requirements will be lifted even for those who test positive for the virus. Masks will no longer be required anywhere.

In Alberta, all COVID-19 testing centres are to close by the end of August, changes announced by the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr.Deena Hinshaw. This, despite a surge in Alberta's COVID-19 daily case rates. The province's rate of immunization lags far behind the average in Canada as a whole, despite announcing 233 new cases on Thursday, 188 of them linked to the Delta variant.

"I guess we're back to personal responsibility, where if you're not vaccinated, you need to be willing to suffer the price, and if you can't be vaccinated or if you can't have a good response to vaccine due to comorbidities or medication, well that's too bad, you live in Alberta."

"It's hard to believe Hinshaw's saying this, that this is like any other respiratory virus, when it's nothing like the other respiratory viruses that are around. Any way you look at it, it just doesn't make any sense."

Dr.Alain Tremblay, Pulmonologist, University of Calgary

And then, there is Sydney, Australia's most populous city, where despite an extended lockdown since an outbreak of the  highly infectious Delta variant, 239 new locally acquired coronavirus cases were counted over a 24-hour period. "We can only assume that things are likely to get worse before they get better given the quantity of people infectious in the community", stated Premier Gladys Berejiklian, New South Wales state, where Sydney is the capital.

The situation in Sydney is considered so desperate that the Australian military has been called on to help enforce a new lockdown in the city of six million residents. New curbs are set to be imposed on the southwestern and western areas of the city where most COVID-19 cases are found. Residents of those areas must wear masks outdoors and are warned to remain within five km of their homes. New South Wales police had requested 300 military personnel to assist in enforcing lockdown orders.

The army was also used to help enforce a lockdown in Melbourne last year   Getty Images