Unvaxed workers offer a danger

The vaxed public simply does not understand the unvaxed hospital workers’ argument ["Unvaccinated are forced off job," News, Sept. 29].

For 18 months, they’ve worked in outrageous conditions during the worst pandemic of our lifetime. They’ve put their own lives in danger and withstood long, grueling hours. They’ve given hope to the hopeless and smiled at the sickest in their most fearful moments. They wear alien-looking personal protective equipment, no easy feat, as a barrier against a virus that outwits science and medical experts. In final links with patients’ families, they e-connect the dying with the living, offering the final human touch, their warm hands as patients take their final breaths. Hospital caregivers are extraordinary heroes.

We are in awe of their dedication but are disgraced at their protest; their placard language is shameful. Science is the lifeblood of their profession: Rejecting it is an about-face that defies reason. If they are using religion, politics or pundit misinformation as the goalpost in their game, they are kicking the ball in the wrong direction.

Jeopardizing their livelihood abuses workers’ families, employers and hospital patients. I’m happy I was never their patient.

— Kathleen Young, Blue Point

The fact that health care workers are willing to lose their jobs, despite seeing the impact of COVID-19 firsthand, has to tell us something.

Many objections seem to revolve around the vaccine being rushed to market without adequate testing. Since most everyone is now convinced the vaccine is safe, I’d suggest that the liability protections the manufacturers were initially granted be removed immediately. Since the drug companies would likely balk (since they don’t have enough data to access their long-term risk), that leaves the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other government entities and companies that are mandating vaccinations to assume the risk.

If everyone is that certain about the vaccine, put your money where your mouth is.

— Gerard Sewell, West Babylon

I have a question for the woman protesting in front of St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center with the sign that says, "Last Year’s Heroes, This Year’s Unemployed" ["Northwell has fired unvaxed workers," News, Sept. 28]. How much of a "hero" are you if you deliberately put yourself in a health care setting when you are unvaccinated and could potentially infect people who are already seriously ill?

It is bad enough that you choose to ignore common sense and remain unvaccinated, but to do it when you work in a health care facility and could endanger sick and vulnerable people is unconscionable. What about their rights?

— Alison Kent-Friedman, Port Washington

Health care workers who do not believe in science are in the wrong profession. If they are questioning the research and professional knowledge and expertise of the medical community behind the COVID-19 vaccine, they should not be in the medical field.

How can you respect and rely on these health care workers to make the appropriate decisions during a medical crisis if they do not follow trusted research?

— Michele M. Rothfeld, Smithtown

I am a senior citizen with autoimmune diseases. On a recent doctor visit, I learned that the attending nurse did not have her COVID-19 vaccinations.

Many of those unvaccinated state they should have the choice. The bottom line is: When you choose not to be vaccinated, you take away my choice. My choice is to remain healthy, not be exposed to the coronavirus. My choice is to live, your choice takes away my choice and possibly my life.

Initially, as most, I had concerns and was fearful. However, I received my vaccinations because it was not only the right thing to do for myself, it was my duty and responsibility to keep everyone safe.

I am ready to get my third shot when the Moderna booster vaccine is approved. Not only should everyone be vaccinated, but we should continue to be mandated to wear masks in social situations. How many more must die?

— Regla Robinson, St. Albans

Millions of people have chosen their right not to take the vaccination, and there are  thousands of new cases  every day. Choosing no vaccination has had added an unfair burden on hospitals and insurance companies in terms of money and resources. If someone chooses not to be vaccinated, the insurance companies should not pay the hospital bill. The financial burden should fall on the unvaccinated and not the insurance companies, the public or the hospital. If they need to be hospitalized, the hospital should only admit patients that present a vaccination card. That is what they call rationing care. This should free up hospitals to care for acute illnesses and what hospitals were initially designed for in the first place.

— Leonard Beekman, Smithtown

I am appalled that health care workers  don’t seem to care about the health of either their patients or themselves. I would not want to be treated at a hospital by any workers who were not vaccinated for COVID-19  or have not received the other vaccines that we have had the privilege of receiving in our lives. I also do not want my loved ones to be in any kind of care facility where the workers are not vaccinated.  If these employees are unwilling to protect themselves and their patients, then they don’t deserve to have the job.

Any workers who are possibly concerned about undocumented status need to be assured that receiving their immunizations will not cause them to be deported. This pandemic is still impacting us in our daily lives in many ways. We cannot afford to ignore the health and well-being of anyone. We are all in this together.

— Valerie Schroeder, Wading River

Last year, we watched as flag-waving protesters decried the COVID-19-induced shutdowns as an unnecessary assault on our American economy. These "patriots" tacitly (and in some cases openly) allowed that the resulting hospitalizations and deaths would be an acceptable risk and sacrifice for the good of the country.

Today, I see many of the same people resisting vaccinations and mask mandates because it violates some imaginary constitutional rights.

The prick of a needle and the possibility of short-term discomfort are apparently beyond the limits of their patriotic spirit.

Both the current and past administrations have referred to a war against COVID. If so, it’s time to ask yourself, "Am I a patriot, or am I an enemy collaborator?"  

— Robert Mattson, Smithtown