On Sept. 7, Premier François Legault and Health Minister Christian Dubé held a press conference outlining the government’s plan requiring all health care professionals across the province to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.

According to Dubé 20,000, health care workers across the province are unvaccinated.

In an interview with The Equity, two healthcare workers at the Pontiac Hospital estimated that more than 40 staff members could be suspended without pay under the government’s new mandate.

Chanatel Dyelle has worked at the Pontiac Hospital for 11 years and as an RNA in general care for the past eight. In late April, she contracted COVID-19 and thought that would be enough to prevent a double vaccination requirement. Initially, the hospital told her that if vaccinations became a requirement, she only needed a single dose of the vaccine.

The government’s vaccine passport information page states that to meet the “Adequately protected” standard, only a single dose of one of the approved vaccinations is required 21 days after contracting COVID.

She was recently told, however, that a second dose is required, she said. She does not intend to be vaccinated, regardless.

Her vaccination hesitancy centres around the relative newness of the vaccines and what she said are the many serious side-effects she witnessed in patients.

“I am not an anti-vaxxer, whatsoever,” she said. “I do have my childhood vaccines, but they have proven the test of time.”

Personal Support Worker (PSW) Brandon Ladouceur agrees. “I don’t think there has been enough research on it yet, and we don’t know the long-term effects of it yet.”

“I’m not totally against the idea [of getting vaccinated],” he said. He explained that in two or three years, when we have a better idea of the long-term side-effects and there has been further research, he would consider it. But for now, he isn’t comfortable taking it.

As to side-effects, Dyelle said more than a week after an injection, patients have come down with pericarditis and a colleague of hers suffered from intercostal muscle strain or pain.

Pericarditis, an inflammation of the tissue around the heart, has been linked to mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. The CDC lists myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis as possible side effects. However, one study conducted by the Providence Regional Medical Centre and the Providence Research Network found that these heart complications were rare and concluded in their study of more than 2 million vaccine recipients that 1 per 100,000 developed myocarditis and 1.8 per 100,000 developed pericarditis.

Like Dyelle, Ladoucer said, “I am not anti-vax.” When not working, he is studying to become a nurse and has taken all required vaccinations and tests to work in medicine.

Ladouceur also cites his first-hand experiences in the hospital for his hesitancy. During the summer, he worked in the emergency ward and saw what he believed was a large number of patients coming in with complications due to the COVID-19 vaccine. “The doctors say that’s it’s coincidental and that it doesn’t have any correlation. But when you see it first hand, it scares you,” Ladouceur said.

Ladouceur also feels that the pressure from the government borders on coercion.

The mandate’s deadline did not leave much room for consideration on the part of health care workers. The government made the announcement on Sept. 7 and by Sept. 9, employees at the hospital were told they had to get their first dose the following day to meet the Oct. 15 deadline. There must be 21 days between the first and second doses and an additional 14 days are required after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.

Dyelle said many health care workers like herself would not be vaccinated in time.

“It’s gonna be hard on staff” if nurses are suspended without pay, Dyelle said. We’re already working short-staffed. Our rooms are all full. We’re constantly full; we never have an empty bed for more than a day.”

“I have worked 29 of the last 30 days,” Ladouceur said. He added that agency nurses, who are moved from hospital to hospital for short-term periods to fill gaps in care, have been working on a permanent basis seven days a week at the hospital.

Soon after the government’s announcement, president Nancy Bédard of the FIQ (the union representing nurses, nursing assistants and respiratory therapists) released a statement suggesting the government was contradicting itself. On the one hand, stressing difficulties brought about by the nursing shortage while simultaneously stating the unvaccinated would be sent home without pay.

Bédard stated that for the last 18 months, the government had taken an “authoritarian approach” (translated from French) to fight the crisis and compulsory vaccinations were yet another example of the government’s overreach.

Vaccinations are essential, she said, but with most workers in the health network vaccinated, the real focus should be on staffing shortages. “What is currently happening in the network is extremely worrisome,” (translated) and there are already too few healthcare professionals to care for “patients, whether they have COVID or not.”

Ladouceur described one recent shift that required four nurses in the ward and there were only three. “One was an agency nurse; one of them was an RNA pulled from emerge. And another one was an RNA taking overtime. “So no one scheduled was working their actual posts for that weekend.”

“Most of the nurses leaving have full-time positions,” he added.

Ladouceur said that he was tested three times a week before the mandate and feels that is a better solution than ensuring everyone is double-vaccinated because there is no guarantee a vaccinated person won’t get COVID-19. Without testing, there is no way to be sure.

For the vaccine-hesitant, like Ladouceur and Dyelle, by Oct. 15, they may lose their jobs. For Ladouceur, it means a deferral of his education because his nursing school requires students to be vaccinated.

“A lot of people have taken the vaccine out of fear, fear of losing their job,” they feel they have to take it, Dyelle said.

Ladouceur said he would be willing to take tests three times a day if that meant he could continue to work without being vaccinated.

According to a recent Leger poll, 76 per cent of Quebecers support mandatory vaccinations for all health care providers. Only B.C. and the Atlantic provinces came out with higher support at 82 per cent and 83 per cent, respectively.

During Dubé’s Sept. 7 press conference, he said, we have given people every opportunity to voluntarily vaccinate. “This was not an easy decision; we don’t like to force people to be vaccinated, but we have given people until Oct. 15 to make that choice.”

“I would rather make financial sacrifices than deal with the possible side-effects that may occur by taking the vaccine,” Dyelle said.

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