Many health care workers and others are objecting to provide medical information to their employers.  They think they have the right to keep such information private.  Do they have a point?

As Tom Brodbeck of the Winnipeg Free Press said, when medical students were in University,

“They have to sign an immune status consent form that allows the university to access their immunization records and agree that “maintaining an accurate and up-to-date immune status record is an important responsibility of being a student, to protect my own health, as well as the health of the patients with whose care I will be involved.”

I don’t know if other health care students were required to sign such a consent form but to me it seems reasonable to ask for it.

In the past, students at the university were told, that if they did not get immunized that failure “may result in the student being barred from clinical activities involving patients, and may mean the student cannot complete the program.” The students were not given the right to make a personal choice, such as taking tests instead. If they did not do as compelled, they could not continue their studies.

Why is it that now they expect to have the right to refuse? Really what the students learned is that they were expected to follow evidence-based science and get vaccinated or lose their positions. Was that unfair?

If health care workers do not accept evidence based science are they competent to continue in their profession? According to Brodbeck,

“Frankly, I question the medical competency of any health-care worker who chooses not to get immunized, including against COVID-19. I’m not sure I want someone looking after patients who has trouble understanding the basics of vaccine science. If they can’t grasp that, what other medical facts do they struggle with?”

I think Brodbeck has a point.  I don’t think health care workers who refuse to get vaccinated or get tested without a very good reason are worthy of working in our health care system. What do you think?