These caregivers who avoid vaccines Receive the last hour alerts of duty

They prefer to work "under the table", redirect their career or get into their emergency fund: they are caregivers in the health network, but the government approach puts them off to the point where they prefer to choose any option, except that of vaccination.

To understand the reasons behind their choice, Le Devoir has discussed in recent days with health workers from various regions of Quebec.They are mostly part of the 14,613 caregivers in Quebec who are still not vaccinated.They form a minority;represent the 4 % of health workers who have received neither one nor two doses of vaccines to protect themselves from the COVVI-19.

They are a small group difficult to convince, hesitant for a variety of reasons, and which requires individualized attention according to the experts.

The vast majority of them asked not to be identified in this text."Because we are ostracized a lot.We make ourselves say that we are cuckoos, "sums up an auxiliary nurse from the Laurentians.

Some still form their decision to leave their jobs on social networks.Like Marjolaine Normandin, a Mauricie nurse who will obtain the title of clinician in a few months."I was an essential angel.I'm not anymore.See Ya, ”she wrote on October 4 on Facebook.

That day, she had received a letter of suspension after a day of "mess": the ambulances "made the line" in front of the urgency of the regional university university hospital in Trois-Rivières, where she works.

In an interview, she explains that her opposition to the vaccine has long been one in principle."I had refused it because they made me sing with my work," she explains.On October 12, she received a letter from the Order of Nurses of Quebec, who takes up the text of the government decree on compulsory vaccination."[…] Any member of a professional order acting in one of the circles targeted and which is not adequately protected against COVID-19 commits an act derogating from the dignity of its profession," it is written there.

« Tu es digne de la profession quand tu fais des 16 heures à plus finir et que tu te plies à toutes les conditions, mais tu es indigne quand tu n’as pas deux doses ? » s’offusque M^me Normandin.Unlike the others to whom the duty has spoken, the nurse who has seven years of experience ended up accepting a first dose, at the end of September.She made her appointment for a second dose, but still hesitates to go there, "just in principle, because of blackmail".

Quand il a repoussé mercredi l’entrée en vigueur de la vaccination obligatoire au 15 novembre, le ministre de la Santé, Christian Dubé, a dit « tendre la main » aux soignants comme M^me Normandin.The change of tone compared to the previous week was obvious.It is reflected in the most recent government advertising campaign, called "Understanding the other is first to listen to".

Threats and choices

Mélanie Reid, who has worked in health and mental health for 27 years in Montreal, has no intention of catching the minister's hand."I'm still looking for something else!"Who would stay for an employer who does not respect your choices?!She asks."I am wondering myself at the moment after 21 years, and for the first time," said a nurse from Estrie.She is exhausted by overtime of work."I am vaccinated by choice, but I respect the free choice," she insists.

Often in conversations, the management style in the health network is implicated. « [J’ai] hâte de sortir de ce réseau qui ne respecte pas ses employés, qui essaye de les acheter avec des primes empoisonnées », dit M^me Reid."The world is tanned to be threatened," adds an auxiliary nurse from the Gaspé who has 18 years of experience.The postponement of the deadline has strengthened its posture."They will not back down, the nurses.They do not embark on this speech, "she wrote to duty.

The 55 -year -old woman resigned from her post in CHSLD on December 18.She says she is uncomfortable with the guidelines that prevented relatives from accompanying them towards death."I couldn't collaborate in an end of life like that, in my conscience," she said.

Then, the auxiliary nurse attacks "Big Pharma", "manipulated" figures.Despite data proving the effectiveness of vaccines, she judges that they are "experimental".His speech resonates, to various degrees, in other caregivers who discussed with the duty.One of them speaks of elders whose deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, although they had cancer.Then she admits that she does not know if the deceased was tested for the virus.A worker claims that hatching declared in hospitals are false;Another says they are exaggerated by the ministry.In Quebec and Canada, statistics clearly show that COVVI-19 has had an impact on mortality.Quebec has the most reliable data in the country, also concluded the Royal Society of Canada.

Free fall confidence

In the background, there is this crumbling of confidence in Quebec's speech and health network managers."We are a lot censored in the Ciusss.There are girls who have denounced the conditions and who were picked up by their superior.As soon as we make a sit-in, a strike, we are blocked everywhere, "laments Marjolaine Normandin.

The auxiliary nurse of the Laurentians illustrates her distrust by recalling the government's hesitation to recognize, at the start of the pandemic, that the caregivers were not adequately protected."Often, we lacked visors, jackets, all that," says the one who worked in the red zone.

She claims the "right to ask questions without being called a cuckoo".Before the pandemic, she had received "all her vaccines" and will be inoculated against COVVI-19 "at some point"."But I don't want it to be imposed on me," she said.On November 15, she will lose her right of practice and teach nursing care, as she has been doing for 15 years."I am ready to think about it seriously," she said about the possibility of changing career.

A nurse in a Mauricie hospital sums up his opposition to the vaccine by a "blue fear".He says he fears the side effects related to serum, then lists them: "Myocarditis, stroke, pericarditis, pulmonary embolism".As of Friday, the rate of unusual clinical demonstrations by 100,000 doses of COVVI-19 vaccines was 76.1, according to data from the National Public Health Institute of Quebec.

This nurse will work in another field, after having rests rest and exhausted the savings of "his emergency fund".But "if, in the end, I must be vaccinated to be a cashier in the dollarama, I will go be inoculated, against my will, to find my post at the hospital," he said.

Efficacité démontrée

On September 7, the Ethics Committee of the National Public Health Institute gave a favorable opinion for compulsory vaccination of health workers based on the precautionary principle, provided that the exceptional measure remains temporary.He previously considered that it was rather necessary to avoid compulsory vaccination of health personnel out of respect for autonomy and freedom of choice.A study in progress has so far demonstrated the effectiveness of the two doses of death vaccine and hospitalizations.A total of 11,437 people died from COVVI-19 in Quebec.Among 12 and over, 87 % of the population is adequately vaccinated.

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