Dr Arruda’s team and the Ministry of Health and Social Services received an opinion from the Public Health Ethics Committee in early January (CESP) on compulsory vaccination of health workers.
According to the document consulted by Radio-Canada, the CESP wondered whether compulsory vaccination of health care workers was justifiable
.
Or, the Committee considered that it was not, write the authors, insofar as it is still not clear whether the vaccines selected protect the transmission of the virus to users
.
According to committee members, given this uncertainty, the benefit of immunizing healthcare workers against disease does not necessarily mean better maintenance of services
.
It must be said that there are 7,000 to 8,000 absent workers linked to COVID-19 on a daily basis these days in the health network, including several nurses and orderlies. Data that is part of the equation during load shedding in hospitals or care in CHSLDs.
By the end of December, approximately 30,000 employees had been infected with COVID-19 in the health and social services network.
Beneficence in relation to individual freedom, accountability, responsibility, trust, the Committee considered a dozen values in order to formulate an opinion.
CESP could […] revise its position in the event of a clear demonstration of prevention of transmission to others “,” text “:” The CESP could […] revise its position in the event of a clear demonstration of prevention of transmission to others “}}” lang = “fr”>The CESP could […] revise their position if there is a clear demonstration of prevention of transmission to others
, specify the authors.
In the meantime, the Committee recommends that the authorities proceed with the implementation of a worker vaccination campaign
.
The objective of the MSSS is to vaccinate 75% of health workers. At the start of the week, just over 20% had been vaccinated.
For the President of the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), Jeff Begley, forcing workers to get vaccinated would raise a whole debate that is not needed these days
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According to him, the response so far is quite positive, thank you. Me, I think we’ll get there […] without making it compulsory
.
The FSSS-CSN has 100,000 members of the public health and social services network.
The question was asked in 2016
This is not the first time that theINSPQ addresses the issue of compulsory vaccination of health workers.
In 2016, the National Director of Public Health, Dr. Horacio Arruda, asked the Quebec Immunization Committee (CIQ) its opinion on a policy to require health workers to either be vaccinated against influenza or to wear a procedural mask for the entire flu season.
A presumption that vaccination of workers would reduce a substantial burden in patients is insufficient to justify a vaccination requirement
, concluded the Committee.
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