In North Carolina, where I live and work, most  (if not all by the time this is published) major university hospitals and private hospitals have made the decision to mandate the vaccine for all of their employees.

UNC Health recently announced that employees working at all hospitals and clinics in the Triangle, including at Johnston Health in Clayton and Smithfield, will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, or provide a medical or religious waiver request.  This madate goes into effect Tuesday September 21, 2021.

On Sunday, August 1, 2021 approximately 25 protesters gathered in front of Johnston UNC Health in Smithfield, NC to protest a recent decision by hospital administrators making COVID vaccinations mandatory for all employees. Hospital employees, staff from other hospitals, family and friends held signs to stand against the policy. The protest was peaceful and well-organized.  Other campuses of the hospital system are also holding their own protests. 

Johnston Health has about 1,850 employees. That total increases to about 2,400 with contractors, community physicians, volunteers and others.  That total increases to about 2,400 with contractors, community physicians, volunteers and others.  UNC and Johnston health have a vision "to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve" and to "provide quality care", so mandating it's employees only seems fitting.  That is if you ask me. 

The talk today is 'to vaxx or not to vaxx.  That is the 

 Since the pandemic began, UNC Health’s top priority has been keeping our patients and staff healthy and safe. That mission has led us to take every step possible to protect people, including securing PPE, expanding testing and enacting visitor restrictions. We understand our decision to mandate vaccinations has disappointed some members of our team. We’ve had a greater number who are already vaccinated appreciative of the decision. We believe that a mandatory vaccine program is in the best interest of public health and is essential for the safety of our patients, teammates and communities. UNC Health is grateful for the hard work and sacrifices of our heroic health workers during the pandemic. This vaccine requirement is designed to provide a critical layer of protection for everyone. Current infection rates overwhelmingly are in unvaccinated people who are being infected with the Delta variant. Similarly, those hospitalized with the COVID-19 virus are more likely to be unvaccinated. dixon August 2, 2021 At 1:28 pm good for them. what happened to my body, my choice? this is a pathetic excuse to force something they themselves know nothing about on people WHO HAVE THE GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THEIR BODIES! It’s not government or ceo’s decisions. what are they going to do when they lose 1/3 of their employees. this is a disgrace and should really open people’s eyes to question what this is really about. Reply A. Abernathy August 2, 2021 At 2:28 pm Like Bob said: 🇯🇲🎸🎙️🎶 Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!) Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!) Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!) Don’t give up the fight! (Life is your right!) Get up, stand up! (So we can’t give up the fight!) Stand up for your rights! (Lord, Lord!) Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!) Don’t give up the fight! (Yeah!) Reply Mr. Me August 2, 2021 At 2:46 pm The vaccine is just another reason for the government to put chips on us and control us. They want to spy on us all the time so don’t get the vaccine if you do they well track you and made you do stuff for them. Reply NativeReturn August 2, 2021 At 5:02 pm Check a check up. You’re crazy. Reply jocosnoozer August 2, 2021 At 5:28 pm Are you being sarcastic? Or do you actually believe the government is trying to put chips in people? Reply Doc August 2, 2021 At 5:54 pm I’m sure the government will spy on you Mr. Me and track your weekly trips to Wal-Mart and the dollar store. Reply Carl W Matthews Jr August 2, 2021 At 2:57 pm Condition of employment. Suck it up and get a shot. Other people have bodies too, including a brain. Reply Hank August 2, 2021 At 3:45 pm “I’m a registered nurse, BSN, case manager in Baltimore. Grass roots, boots on the ground. “There’s a lot of patients being injured. I’ve never seen anything like this. Since January I’ve experienced personally six deaths, and I’ve lost count of the injuries. And we’re not talking about typical adverse events, like fevers, chills, sore muscles…I’m talking about things like urinating clots of blood, paresthesia, gastroparesis, altered mental status, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, new onset seizures, new onset diabetes…I have patients who can’t walk anymore, patients who keep complaining that their feet and hands are burning, they forget where they are…I’ve just never seen anything like this in all my years of practicing medicine. “What I’m seeing now, as time goes by, is patients who were given the shot months ago, who are now showing up in the hospital, with equally strange and confusing events. Practitioners see this, their dissonance just flows, and they either ignore it, or they literally don’t know what to do with it. Every health care professional, working with patients across this country, has to see what’s going on.” “What else do I see on the ground? – a lot of great suffering that isn’t getting met with good care, because we have no idea what to do with these patients, who have been injured by, frankly, an experimental treatment, and there’s no protocol to treat them, there’s no information how to help them, and even breaking through the cognitive dissonance of physicians, to accept this patient has been vaccine injured, is a chasm. It’s a huge chasm.” https://www.bitchute.com/video/M8Dk0Y8Pxfko/ Reply Mark S. August 2, 2021 At 3:05 pm What a bunch of SNOWFLAKES!!! Don’t like the job? Then quit! No one is forcing you to work there. This is AMERICA and we can choose to work where we want. Reply Freddie howell August 2, 2021 At 3:28 pm If I am sick and in the hospital . I don’t want anybody near me that does not have a shot. Reply NativeReturn August 2, 2021 At 5:00 pm Let them find another job. Better yet, leave town and the rest of morons Who support them. Reply Strickland Johnson August 2, 2021 At 5:01 pm Healthcare workers showed up and did their job during the pandemic without “scientific protection “, we had to reuse PPE and work tirelessly!! As a RN it should remain my choice if I elect to participate in a clinical trial! How about they focus on citizens receiving public assistance that don’t even work?? No shot, no check?? That is the population that continues to be infected, not healthcare workers who have always been immunized with approved/tested/safe vaccines! Reply NCGAL August 2, 2021 At 5:28 pm Please update your resume and seek employment elsewhere. Reply jocosnoozer August 2, 2021 At 5:28 pm If you don’t want the vaccine then don’t work there. You’ve still got a choice, and anyone who can’t see that is ignorant of the facts. Reply Francis Marion August 2, 2021 At 6:14 pm Keep it up! Good on y’all Reply Jen R August 2, 2021 At 7:07 pm For everyone saying go find another job or get the shot… good luck to you when all the healthcare employees do decide to quit cause the already short staffed hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, etc will be even worse and you won’t be able to get care for yourself! As well if they all get the shot and end up with severe reactions so they can no longer work where do you expect to get care? I think we should all be weary of anything experimental if healthcare workers are refusing to get it! As a former healthcare worker who knows Having to get the typical, safety tested shots is part of the job even if you don’t like it realizes this is different. This has not been tested, has a horrible track record of side effects, and very little protection from covid. It should be a choice since covid is 99.9% survivable and most these folks already have natural immunity from it by being exposed to it for the past 1.5years! Reply

I have seen hundreds of hundreds of people die over the last 20 months. I'm a traveling ICU nurse and I have spent the pandemic as an RN at hospitals in Colorado, New Jersey, and California. Of the millions of people who have contracted COVID-19 worldwide, I have treated thousands. And I have lost too many. It is the greatest threat to our patients that we will see in our lifetime.

For people who aren't in the medical profession, witnessing the tragedy every day for weeks, months, and now close to two years, it's easy to forget just how devastating it is to see the scope of lives lost. To see entire families wiped out, and those left behind stunned and grieving a loved one that they never even had the chance to say goodbye to, because of a disease so dangerous that we can't even let their families be in the same room with them and risk their own exposure.

And yet, instead of uniting around this shared national tragedy, we have seen nothing but politicization and divisiveness. On one side, you have people convinced that everything I have experienced is a hoax. And on the other side, you have people mocking those who don't take advantage of the vaccine and then find themselves sick with COVID-19. Needless to say, that's the opposite of how medical professionals work.

A nurse in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Three Rivers Asante Medical Center speaks with a patient on September 9, 2021 in Grants Pass, Oregon. Like many hospitals in the state, Three Rivers Asante is facing their largest COVID-19 surge since the beginning of the pandemic, forcing them to operate well above capacity.

To both sides, my message is the same: My dead patients are not a political game. Their broken families are not a hoax. And the burnt-out healthcare workers all over the U.S. and worldwide are not a lie.

And on the other side, to those who have become jaded, I urge you to have nothing but pity for all the fathers, mothers, grandparents, sons, and daughters who we have lost, and the families who have been shattered from losing their loved ones—even if they chose not to protect themselves.

They deserve our sympathy and compassion. Period. It is not funny, nor is it "justice." It is a tragedy and shame on anyone who makes light of any life lost. Death is not a fitting punishment for someone who was misled or misinformed.

As someone who is simply tired of seeing people die, I am begging you to get vaccinated. I want to see my patients get better, go home, and have dinner with their families again.

I want to see them smile and laugh with their families again. And yet, the sad truth is we are no better at treating severe COVID now than we were when we all started. We have no concrete way of predicting if you will get that form of COVID. I have seen people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, genders, walks of life, and medical histories wasted away to a shell of a human before ultimately dying.

What we do have is a vaccine—one that is around 97 to 99 percent effective at preventing this form of severe COVID. We can tell that by the numbers of ICU admissions, which is the key distinction with COVID.

So please protect yourself and the people around you by getting vaccinated. I say this without judgement, in the same tone as I would say "Don't jump into traffic" or "Don't drink a liter of vodka every day." Fortunately, we don't have millions of Americans advocating jumping into traffic or overconsumption. What we do have is millions choosing not to get vaccinated.

But I am also begging those of you on the pro-vaccine side to stop with the snark, to stop with the judgements. I'm begging politicians to stop turning my dying patients into a prop. All of this politicizing is stealing lives, one by one. And we just can't afford it.

So the next time you see something on social media that makes light of the unvaccinated or calls the vaccine a hoax, please remember the thousands of medical professionals trying to save lives and daily grieving every one lost. Remember the families of those patients. And choose compassion instead.

A graduate of North Central Texas College, Zac Shepherd has been a traveling ICU nurse for the past four years. During the COVID pandemic, he has practiced as an RN at hospitals in Colorado, New Jersey, and California. Find him on Instagram @adayinzlife and Twitter @ZacShepherdRN. The views in this article are the writer's own. (Originally posted in Newsweek 

https://www.newsweek.com/stop-politicizing-my-dying-patients-opinion-1632019

From Newsweek.com on Friday, September 24, 2021 12:02EDT

The Washington Post

Andrea Salcedo

09/24/2021  

Matthew Trunsky is used to people being angry at him.

Matthew Trunsky’s post detailing his interactions with eight covid patients highlights the resistance and mistreatment some health care workers across the U.S. face while caring for patients who have put off or declined getting the vaccine.

Matthew Trunsky’s post detailing his interactions with eight covid patients highlights the resistance and mistreatment some health care workers across the U.S. face while caring for patients who have put off or declined getting the vaccine.

As a pulmonologist and director of the palliative care unit at a Beaumont Health hospital in southeastern Michigan, Trunsky sees some of the facility’s sickest patients and is often the bearer of bad news.

He gets it. No one is prepared to hear a loved one is dying.

But when a well-regarded intensive care unit nurse told him during a recent shift that the wife of an unvaccinated covid patient had berated her when she informed the woman of her husband’s deteriorating condition, Trunsky, who has lost more than 100 patients to the coronavirus, reached his breaking point.

 When he got home that evening, he made himself a sandwich and opened Facebook.

Still sporting his black scrubs, he began to vent. He wrote about a critically ill patient who disputed his covid-19 diagnosis. Another threatened to call his lawyer if he wasn’t given ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that is not approved for treating covid. A third, Trunsky wrote, told the doctor they would rather die than take one of the vaccines.

One demanded a different doctor. “I don’t believe you,” he told the physician.

The physician added: “Of course the answer was to have been vaccinated — but they were not and now they’re angry at the medical community for their failure.”

Trunsky’s post detailing his interactions with eight covid patients and their relatives highlights the resistance and mistreatment some health-care workers across the United States face while caring for patients who have put off or declined getting vaccinated. Trunsky estimates that 9 out of every 10 covid patients he treats are unvaccinated.

His post — a plea for people to get vaccinated — also reveals the physical and emotional toll the pandemic has had on health-care workers, who have been on the front lines for over a year and a half. Roughly 3 out of 10 have considered leaving the profession, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, and about 6 in 10 say stress from the pandemic has harmed their mental health.

Some doctors are refusing to treat unvaccinated patients. Last month, an Alabama physician posed beside a sign announcing he would not treat any unvaccinated patients as of Oct. 1. Earlier this month, a Florida doctor sent a letter to her patients informing them that she would not be treating any unvaccinated patients in person after Sept. 15.

Trunsky, 55, empathizes with other burned-out medical workers.

“We are physically tired as a whole, me included, and we are emotionally exhausted. … I don’t think a week goes by that I don’t see someone pass away,” he told The Washington Post.

Early into the pandemic, Trunsky spent about four hours a day calling patients’ families to update them on their loved ones’ status. Some of those conversations still affect him, like the time he called a woman to share the news that her father had died. “I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now‚” he recalled her telling him. “We’re burying my mother.”

Another time, when calling a woman to report her brother was dying, the woman — before Trunsky said anything — answered with, “Look, my mother died, my father died, my brother died and I don’t want any bad news.”

But what makes him sadder, he told The Post, “are the ones I don’t remember.” He has lost too many patients during the global pandemic to recall them all.

Throughout most of 2020, Trunsky and his staff faced surge after surge of coronavirus patients. So when the Food and Drug Administration authorized the first vaccine last December, Trunsky said morale and hope were restored at his hospital. That did not last long, though. As vaccination rates plateaued and the highly contagious delta variant began to spread, hospital beds began filling back up.

Trunsky said patients he sees give different reasons for not taking one of the vaccines. Some, he said, regret the decision — like a nursing mother who said she was concerned about how a vaccine might affect her newborn baby. Others, Trunsky said, remain convinced they made the right choice — even on their deathbeds.

Whatever their reasons, he told The Post, “they are paying the price, and they are getting mad at us.”

And while he said it is easier to deal with appreciative patients than those threatening to sue if he will not give them ivermectin, he remains committed to treating anyone battling covid with the same level of care.

As for those he wrote about in his Facebook post after the tough shift earlier this month, six out of the eight have since died, he said.

Two, including the husband of the woman who berated the ICU nurse, remain in critical condition.