Health Care Employees and Personal Choice

There is a pretty awful and in my opinion crazy debate going on in my area of Upstate NY relative to a requirement for all healthcare workers to be vaccinated by the end of September. Gov. Kathy Hochul has put the requirement in place as part of her new administration. There are some medical exemptions but no religious exemption. 

Almost as quickly as the Governor put the requirement in place we began hearing from Hospital CEO's raising concerns about the vacancies this requirement would cause in their facilities. Of course it must be said that these facilities have traditionally had a high vacancy rate due to specific shortages, wage issues and other management decisions made by these CEO's. These folks also know how to muster political support for their issues so no surprise that other parties began to be heard from as well.

Employees themselves began to complain about the requirement and began throwing around the personal choice argument while holding demonstrations at their facilities. Of course burn out, vacancies and threats of quitting were all part of their approach too. Next we heard from 10 or so county leaders, administrators and surprisingly public health officials. These folks weren't so much against vaccinations or vaccines, they just thought the timing was poor and it would, yes, you guessed it, lead to more vacancies. The alternative being pushed was to offer employees weekly or more frequent testing. Personal choice was again the undertone of all of the discussions.

Now I understand that there are probably other things going on here. It's no surprise that most of this political support is coming from the Governor's opposition party. That's the party that says we don't have a legitimate President, that communists, socialists and nazis are lurking around every vineyard and dairy barn.  I'm also sure there are many reasons for the reality of impending resignations and increased vacancies in the health care field and they don't all have to do with anti vaccination feelings by these employees. 

We all need to recognize that these folks have been through hell. They have been short staffed, working overtime and watching people die and others not receiving appropriate care. Their wages have never been great. All of this takes a toll and none of us can really judge people needing to make a decision to leave those conditions. All of that though is very different than an anti vaccine position by an educated and trained health care or public health professional arguing for personal choice. People have gone to school, been educated and trained in issues like disease prevention, infection control and how diseases spread.

The Governor is saying she won't back down and I hope she doesn't. As a person with a serious, life threatening disease and disability, I don't want to receive health care in or from a facility where health care professionals aren't or won't follow the science or the things they were taught to receive their degrees and certifications. I don't want to be provided care by a facility who's top administrators can't figure out what's wrong with their own management. 

It's most disappointing that public health officials and departments have been dragged into this by their county administrators and convinced that a concern about vacancies outweighs their responsibilities for good public health practices. Public health is not local, its not about economic development and job protection.

Of course all health care workers should be vaccinated in a pandemic. Give me a break. The personal choice is still there. Find another job.