Stop Hospital Vaccine Mandates & Save the Public From Staffing Shortages

Please take the following simple steps to try to help save the jobs of unvaccinated healthcare workers of St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton who are threatened with job termination as of April 7, 2022

Create and email and add the following addresses: Mfarrell@stjosham.on.ca, wdoyle@stjoshsm.on.ca

2. Please cc the letter to the following emails: afurey@postmedia.com, RBaber-CO@ola.org, PatientRelations@stjoes.ca, premier@ontario.ca, local075@ona.org, scimino@cupe786.org, rmurphy@nationalpost.com, opseu@opseu.org

3. Cut and paste the content below into the body of your email and sign your name to the letter.

4. In the subject line please put the following title: Stop St. Joseph’s Healthcare’s Unscientific, Harmful Vaccine Mandate, Prevent Under Staffing & Protect Safe Patient Care

Dear Ms Doyle and Ms Farrell:

As you are no doubt aware, the Premier of Ontario did not impose a provincial COVID vaccine mandate due to the threat that staff shortages would pose to patient care. Meanwhile, as the CEO / president of St. Joseph's Healthcare, you accepted this risk and placed dozens of staff, who were being tested every 48 hours, on unpaid leave and threatened to terminate them on April 7, 2022.

I would ask that you reconsider this decision.

There are numerous reasons to do so, including the ever changing nature of this pandemic and the current, evolving evidence. Worse, it does not consider far reaching and enduring threats to quality, safe patient care. When experienced staff leave, health care systems pay a heavy price because less experienced staff may not recognize symptoms as quickly, understand systems, or know the best ways to avoid certain medical errors. Also, since St. Joseph’s already lists approx. 259 combined internal and external job vacancies, the threat that understaffing and burnout of remaining staff pose to care outcomes and patient safety is significant. So too is the further burden you will place on already over-strained healthcare budgets with costly hiring and retraining of new employees.

As a taxpayer who helps fund your hospital, I expect public accountability and transparency. I would like to know that St. Joseph’s is upholding fiscally sound, evidence-based, logical and equitable policy. Can you give me that assurance by answering the following questions with a simple yes or no?

Thank you and here are some questions I have for you, you can see the reference list for supporting sources.

1. Can you confirm that as of February 24. 2022, 98% of St Joesph’s Healthcare staff were fully vaccinated (with two vaccines)?

2. Are you aware that Directive 6 written by the Ontario Chief Officer of Health, Dr Kieran Moore, endorses rapid antigen testing as a viable protective measure for unvaccinated staff working in high-risk settings such as hospitals?

3. Are you aware that on February 17, 2022 Ontario’s Chief Officer of Health stated that workplace vaccine policies are no longer necessary and can end as of March 1, 2022?

4. Are you aware that Canadian nursing leaders warn of serious threats to patient care and safety as a result of critical nursing shortages ?

5. Are you aware that a August 31, 2021 Ministry of Health memorandum to Medical Officers of Health and Associate Medical Officers of Health authored by Ontario’s Chief Officer of Health, stated that: “Recent data from the Delta variant shows that when breakthrough cases occur, fully vaccinated individuals have similar levels of infectiousness as in unvaccinated cases. The Delta variant is more transmissible and virulent than previous strains and is the dominant strain in Ontario, likely making up over 90% of new cases.

6a). Are you aware that as of July 2021, credible data sources found notable vaccine breakthrough against the Delta variant, and that vaccinated people were spreading it as readily as the unvaccinated?

6b) And are you aware the CDC was calling for boosters as a result of this waning vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant as early as July 2021?

7. Are you aware that Ontario’s Chief Officer of Health, stated on Feb 3, 2022 that: “Two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine don’t seem to significantly limit transmission of Omicron”

8a) Are you aware that January 2022 data from Public Health Ontario shows COVID cases among the vaccinated outnumbered those of the unvaccinated ?

8b) Are you aware that CDC data indicates COVID-19-associated hospitalizations also increased among the vaccinated, from 1.4 per 100,000 for the fully vaccinated for the week ending Dec. 18, 2021, to 35.2 per 100,000 in the week ending Jan. 8?

9. Are you aware that credible sources such as the CDC, JAMA and the BMJ confirm that wane in vaccine protection is real and that vaccines are subject to marked decreases in effectiveness after aprox. 6 months ?

10. We know COVID vaccines have been available to healthcare workers since December 2020. Is it reasonable to assume therefore, that members of of St Joseph’s staff may have been vaccinated well over 6 months ago and may therefore no longer be protected?

11. When you learned of the limitations in, and waning of, vaccine protection against both the Delta and Omicron variants, did you mandate testing of all staff regardless of vaccine status?

12. We know that Ontario’s Chief Officer of Health stated on February 3, 2022 that: “Two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine don’t seem to significantly limit transmission of Omicron, though three doses decrease the risk of transmission by about 60 per cent” We also know that boosters have been approved since early November 2021. Considering your vigilance to protect staff and patients that you feel justifies firing staff who you feel pose an infection risk, have you mandated a booster ?

13. Are you aware that many of the experienced staff you are terminating have had COVID and recovered from it, and that a large body of evidence shows that natural immunity from infection offers protection from COVID that is broader than, and at least as long-lasting as, that provided by the vaccine?

14. Are you aware that the front-line staff you are terminating are fully trained and well able to protect themselves and others against the spread of infectious disease; that many have worked through past epidemics and even pandemics; and that they regularly successfully care for patients with communicable and highly transmissible viruses?

15a) Are you concerned that the CDC was accused in a recent New York Times article of a lack of transparency regarding data showing vaccine breakthrough and decreased efficacy in reducing serious illness and hospitalizations?

15b) Are you concerned that Pfizer, a company with the largest criminal fraud payout in history, has been accused of fraud regarding their internal trials, sought to suppress findings such as vaccine injury and that there were more deaths in the vaccinated group than the control ?

15c) Are you concerned that the Director of the CDC recently publicly admitted : “we showed too little caution and too much optimism” regarding current COVID vaccines?

16. We know that Canadian hospitals face significant budgetary restraints, which experts warn, if further strained, could threaten quality safe patient care. That said, are you aware that training and orientating new staff is very expensive and that the replacement of one RN alone could cost between $37,700 to $58,400 USD?

18. Are you aware that the vaccines you are requiring for staff to keep their jobs carry risks?

19. Is it correct that St Joesph’s Healthcare removed its policy to ban unvaccinated caregivers on March 1, 2022 but the staff vaccination mandate remains ?

20. Is it correct that you are terminating employees without severance pay?

References:

Question 2.

https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/coronavirus/docs/directives/vaccination_policy_in_health_settings.pdfQ

Question 3.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8628340/workplace-covid-vaccination-policies-no-longer-necessary-ontario-top-doc/

Question 4.

https://ottawa.citynews.ca/amp/local-news/ontarios-nursing-shortages-critical-as-omicron-ramps-up-nurses-association-4880625

Question 5.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.12.21265796v1

Question 6.

a) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39percent-effective-in-israel-prevents-severe-illness.htm