opinion: approach the unvaxxed with love and understanding
5 minute read
calgary icu staff speak with a covid-19 patient to determine if there is anyone they would like staff to call.
supplied by alberta health services
by: licia corbella
the divide between the vaxxed and unvaxxed keeps on growing. a new leger survey, conducted for the association of canadian studies, found that more than three in four respondents hold negative views of those who are not immunized. even those who are unvaccinated think less of those who are also unvaccinated.
just last week, as alberta’s hospital situation grew more dire, doctors dusted off the critical care triage protocol, preparing for the worst case scenario.
that is a very dire thing. the triage protocol — a 52-page document last updated in may — will help physicians faced with too many patients and not enough resources to objectively decide who gets what kind of care.
as dr. lynora saxinger said during an interview last week: “those words — critical care triage protocol — actually give me chest pain.”
despite what some physicians have said, according to ahs the triage protocol has not yet been implemented, though alberta’s icu numbers are breaking all kinds of records.
many readers have written in to opine that unvaccinated people should receive less care in icu than the vaccinated, should such a life-and-death decision need to be made by a medical team.
if we’re honest, most of us who have been vaccinated have at least contemplated such a scenario if not supported it outright. doctors admit that it has been discussed.
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one reader put it this way: “i think we should introduce two-tier health care. for those who choose to not get vaccinated, they would only receive second-level health care including low priority for icu.”
it’s understandable that albertans who have done whatever they can to protect themselves, other people and our health-care system — by getting vaccinated — think it’s unfair an unvaccinated person, who comes into hospital struggling to breathe with covid, might get better care than a fully vaccinated person who arrives two minutes later.
of course, applying a “well-they-asked-for-it-therefore-they-don’t-deserve-care” approach is the kind of slippery slope we shouldn’t head down. we treat drug addicts overdosing, smokers with lung cancer, alcoholics with liver failure, drunk drivers who injure themselves and others, diabetics who eat poorly and on the other end of the spectrum, skiers with torn acls and football players with concussions.
it’s easy to vilify “the other.” but when you know someone in “the other group” — know their heart and who they are — it becomes much harder to think ill of them and want them to receive lesser care should they get ill. so, let me introduce you to the only albertan i know who is not vaccinated (other than the protesters i met in front of foothills hospital recently who shouted “fake news” at me.)
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susan is 50 years old and a single mom with two adult daughters and a teenaged son who lives with her in calgary’s southeast. two years ago susan suffered a stroke — which remains unexplained. it scared the daylights out of all of us.
susan is a slim and fit woman because she cleans houses all day, every day, which is hard, physical work. she doesn’t smoke. she is very careful about what she puts in her body. she’s even careful about what she uses to clean with, choosing to use white vinegar, baking soda and essential oils. she’s also very much afraid of having a stroke, should she get vaccinated.
“what if i get the vaccine and have another stroke?” she asks. i told her the risk of suffering from a blood clot is 10 times higher if and when she catches covid, than it is from getting the jab, according to an oxford university study, but she is simply so scared. she doesn’t want to leave her kids without a mother, though by not getting vaccinated she is making that likelihood higher.
she is a truly lovely person. i would want her to be treated as well as possible should she get hospitalized from covid — something that is happening to one out of every 20 people who catch the virus. i hope by learning a little bit about susan, this us-and-them, hate-the-other attitude can be quelled.
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according to alberta’s chief medical officer of health dr. deena hinshaw, of the people admitted to alberta’s icus with covid-19 between june 1 and sept. 23, 88 per cent were unvaccinated, while six per cent had one dose. only six per cent of icu admissions were fully vaccinated and tended to be very elderly or had underlying health conditions. in other words, this is now very much a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
susan says, “for me, the vaccine is too new. i just need more time and more information.”
here’s hoping she gets that time and not covid, but if and when she does get covid, i hope that it will not land her in the hospital, icu or morgue.
dr. saxinger says the disinformation on the internet surrounding vaccinations is very troubling. that disinformation is dangerous, even if people don’t initially believe what they are reading.
“you just have to see it enough that it makes you hesitate. and right now if you hesitate too long, you could get covid and get very ill and die” — like the 2,645 albertans who already have, she says.
“we have people coming into hospital saying, ‘i just didn’t do it. i was waiting to get my vaccination, but kept putting it off. now i wish i had.’”
luckily for the unvaccinated, the main principle anchoring the allocation and triage process is something called “capacity to benefit.”
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“the best action when demand for absolutely scarce critical care resources exceeds supply is to save the greatest number of lives possible,” states the critical care triage protocol.
this entails prioritizing admission of patients who have a substantially better chance of surviving after receiving critical care. “all individuals have equal moral worth. when they have approximately equal likelihood to benefit and to survive, they ought to have the same access to health-care resources that they need. therefore, if distinctions cannot be made between patients’ capacity to benefit from critical care, they will be given an equal chance of receiving it.”
clearly, vaccination helps people survive and therefore, if all other things are equal, vaccination can, in that kind of a limited scenario, be the deciding factor as to who gets care in favour of the vaccinated.
it’s something to think about if you’re unvaccinated.
in the meantime, for us vaccinated folk, try to remember many of the people who haven’t yet received their vaccine — hard-working, loving people like susan — deserve our care and compassion.
it’s time to narrow that divide between us and them.
licia corbella is a postmedia columnist.
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