- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
On January 1, 2021 Grey Bruce Public Health reported that there had been 41 cases of Covid-19 to date in health care workers “working in Grey Bruce”.
On February 26, the mass vaccination clinics were announced, capable of administering “4500 vaccines in a 10-hour shift of 5 vaccinators” in three Grey-Bruce communities. By that time the number of health care workers living in Grey-Bruce who had tested positive for Covid-19 had almost doubled to 81.
On that same day, Public Health's Situation Report included “All Long Term Care Home Staff and essential caregivers, and All High Risk Retirement Homes staff - 1st dose", and some their second. “In progress” were “High and Very High Risk Health Care workers – hospital setting, EMS, and many Retirement Home Staff" and under “future vaccine planning” were “High/Very High Community Health Care Workers”.
“All” is not precisely accurate.
As of May 31, 66% of staff in long-term care settings in Ontario had been fully vaccinated, and 89% had received one dose. That would leave more than 11,000 staff completely unvaccinated. For many health care workers, the second dose wasn't available at the 3 to 4 week interval that it is now. Those who fought to get it sooner were denied and had to wait the almost 12 week period as limited supply was prioritized elsewhere.
Some local health care workers, right up to surgeons, reported being in the same position as their patients – waiting for their age cohort, trying to book through the challenging provincial booking system to find available appointments in other communities outside of working hours, and re-scheduling for vaccine side-effects.
The provincial government's three days of sick leave per year, announced in April, can be used to take time off for vaccination or for post-vaccination reactions – an incentive to those who do not qualify for any other sick leave.
The specific numbers of vaccinated Grey-Bruce health care workers are not available to the public, or even to staff themselves in most residences and workplaces.
Vaccine hesitancy, or even hostility, exists among health care workers too. Those initiating or promoting these messages have some of the largest on-line followings in the world.
Vaccination for those employed in health care settings is not mandatory in Ontario, nor does the Premier have any intention of making it so. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario has been trying to change his mind. Beginning July 1, the government's requirement for long-term care workers who do not get both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is to “participate in an educational program about the benefits of vaccination and the risks of not being vaccinated” - essentially, watch a video.
Vaccination against seasonal flu is also not mandatory in healthcare settings. In some long-term care facilities, those who refuse the vaccine are not allowed to work if the residence is on respiratory outbreak, or must take anti-viral tamiflu at their own expense.
In the five months since the beginning of mass vaccination, cases among health care workers living in Grey-Bruce have risen another 28% to 104.
