should vaccines be mandatory for health workers?

“the equation is simple: the more we vaccinate, the less space we leave this virus to circulate,” french president emmanuel macron said. vaccination appointment rates shot up across france in the hours following the announcement.

“long past time for this in canada,” university of toronto epidemiology professor david fisman tweeted monday about news that greece would require its healthcare professionals get the shot, or face unpaid suspension from work. “there’s no reason for hcws [healthcare workers] to remain unvaccinated.”

bravo. long past time for this in canada. there's no reason for hcw to remain unvaccinated.

if you've signed up to care for people, you can't also voluntarily serve as a covid-vector. https://t.co/hscakpkubr

— david fisman (@dfisman) july 12, 2021

“i believe it is not unreasonable that when you choose to work in health care, like any profession that includes certain bonafide occupational requirements, that you acknowledge that you will take vaccinations and tests that are required,” mackenzie said in an interview with postmedia .

after a deadly outbreak in a sherbrooke cancer ward, quebec now requires oncologists to get vaccinated or take three covid tests each week. ontario currently requires staff at long-term care homes to be vaccinated, show proof of medical exemptions for the vaccine or partake in an educational program about vaccines. cbc news reports that the province is not considering mandatory vaccination. it’s currently considering expanding that long-term care mandate to all health care workers. another option would be to require the unvaccinated to undergo regular covid screening and wear personal protective equipment while dealing with patients.

“healthcare workers in general should be vaccinated to protect themselves, their family and their patients,” dr. adam kassam, president of the ontario medical association, said on wednesday.  “we know that covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and we’re seeing that across ontario. they keep numbers coming down, and we’re seeing improvements in terms of hospital capacity, icu capacity.”

in the last three months, the vast majority of young adults who contracted covid-19 — 96 per cent — were unvaccinated. most canadian hospitals do require their staff to get other vaccines, kassam pointed out.

dr. krishana sankar, a biologist and science communicator with covid-19 resources canada , says the issue of vaccine mandates is “tricky and challenging.”

“i think the reasons behind people being uncertain about getting the vaccine have shifted,” sankar said. at first, people were concerned about mrna vaccines, which they (incorrectly) worried would alter their dna. now, she’s answering a lot of questions about whether the vaccine can affect fertility .

because many health-care workers are from racialized communities , sankar said one effective way to raise vaccination rates would be to provide more culturally-specific vaccine information. regina, sask.-based indigenous health lab morning star lodge and toronto’s black covid task force are great examples of grassroots organizations working within specific communities, she said, and she hopes those kinds of groups get more support.

while t here isn’t readily-accessible data on how many canadian health-care workers have received vaccines, kassam said internal oma polling shows that “the vast majority” of ontario physicians are fully vaccinated. but the numbers might not be as high for other roles, such as personal service workers, a workforce that’s overwhelmingly female and racialized , often with low pay and no paid sick leave.

a february study of over 8,700 ontario health-care workers found that 68 per cent of respondents would be more likely to get vaccinated if they were guaranteed not to go out-of-pocket for vaccine costs, including paid sick leave and compensation for parking or transit.