And now, I give you the latest dumb decision that the Ford government is going to have to walk back in a few weeks, hopefully before it has the chance to spectacularly fail.
Ontario won’t force vaccines on hospital workers because of potential for staffing shortages and surgery delays, Doug Ford says
What in the fuck is wrong with you people? This is a question not only for the PCs, but for all of the province’s unvaccinated hospital workers.
I’m not going to sit here and say that having some concerns about staffing levels and the ability to perform surgeries in a timely manner is a completely ridiculous thing, but don’t try to tell me that allowing irresponsible, antivaxx employees to roam free in buildings full of sick people is a better alternative. It isn’t. Let’s not forget why we have a surgical backlog in the first place. It’s because of COVID. The same COVID we’re still wrestling with and that has mutant friends now that can do more damage more quickly.
Hopefully the hospitals will do what Ford won’t and impose mandates of their own. I think most will. But yet again, Ford’s inaction and nod to the antivax community that’s most likely to vote for him in 2022 is putting lives more at risk than they ought to be.
Ontario won’t force hospital workers to get COVID-19 vaccines because it could lead to staff shortages or surgery delays and will instead leave the decision to individual medical institutions, says Premier Doug Ford.
The move was met with disbelief by health experts and opposition critics, who have called for mandatory vaccines for hospital staff. Why, they asked, are nursing home staff required to get their shots, but not those working in hospitals who also care for vulnerable patients?
“This is a complex issue,” Ford said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, noting he wrote to hospital heads across the province asking for their input on the possibility of a mandate.
“But when the impact of the potential departure of tens of thousands of health-care workers is weighed against the small number of outbreaks that are currently active in Ontario’s hospitals, I am not prepared to jeopardize the delivery of care to millions of Ontarians. Having looked at the evidence, our government has decided to maintain its flexible approach by leaving human resourcing decisions up to individual hospitals.”
The Ontario Hospital Association — which had the support of 120 of 141 institutions in calling for a mandate — said it is “disappointed” and that the province “cannot afford to let its guard down” after fighting COVID-19 for almost two years.