Why do some nurses speak out against the Covid-19 vaccine mandate?
A total of 5,862 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 in New Hampshire since the pandemic began, 87 have been hospitalized and 10 have died, according to state statistics.
Before the story starts let's do a bit of "back of the napkin" math; 5,862 cases and 10 dead
5,862 @ 10% = 586
5,862 @ 1% = 58
But that hasn’t stopped a vocal group of nurses and others in the medical industry from loudly objecting to vaccination requirements, even at the risk of losing their jobs.
The Biden administration is requiring Covid-19 vaccinations of staff at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities to protect them and patients from the virus and its more contagious Delta variant. It has also ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to draft a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free.
Registered nurse Terese Grinnell has been outspoken against Covid-19 vaccination mandates. She previously worked at Concord Hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association. She declined to state her present employer, but said she works with critically ill patients.
Grinnell organizes regular protests outside Concord Hospital. She has posted photos of protests involving about a dozen people outside the hospital. Grinnell says other nurses and healthcare professionals join in.
She calls for the impeachment of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. She reposted an article that compared mask mandates to the Holocaust and included a graphic of syringes formed to shape a Nazi swastika.
Beginning activism
Grinnell said she began her activism after learning a pregnant nursing student was being required to take the inoculation in order to continue her education program.
“I have a lot of friends who are not comfortable with the injection,” she said in an interview. “They’ve seen patients with adverse reactions. It has not been out long enough and many of us lived through Covid outbreaks in the hospital,
many of us have had Covid, and it doesn’t make any sense that we would have to put something man-made into our systems and yet we’re losing our livelihoods over it.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the vaccine is safe and effective, the benefits of receiving the vaccination, including during pregnancy, far outweigh extremely rare side effects.
The CDC also says the vaccine was thoroughly researched and tested and is subject to the most intense safety monitoring program in U.S history. It also recommends the vaccine for those who have already had the virus, saying people get better protection by being fully vaccinated.
This advice is supported by the state Department of Health and Human Services, the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the American Nurses Association, among others.
While the vaccine was developed rapidly, efficacy and safety protocols of clinical trials, assessment of data and Food and Drug Administration authorization and approval were followed.
The process was sped by years of experience with similar diseases, decades of research on mRNA technology used in the vaccine, early sequencing of the virus genome, clinical testing stages done in parallel rather than one at time and billions of dollars in government investment, including in manufacturing and distribution. Government red tape was also cut in some instances.
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