“They are on the backs of the people who took the vaccine”: Miami doctor refuses to treat unvaccinated patients

A doctor from Florida is making his position clear on the COVID-19 vaccine: get vaccinated or you cannot be treated in person at the office.

According to the Miami Herald, Dr Linda Marraccini has sent mass email to the 3,000 patients she and her brother John Marraccini treat in their practice. The email explosion highlighted a notice stressing that “the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for regular use, lifting the emergency clearance that the agency had granted the vaccine in December ”.

Now that the vaccine is approved for regular use, the practice has also announced a policy change set to take effect on September 15. In short, the practice now enforces a vaccine mandate. Patients have two options: start the vaccination process before September 15 or “it will end the doctor-patient relationship.”

For patients who cannot find another doctor by this date, Marraccini will offer virtual consultations. Speaking to the Miami Herald, Marraccini shared more details on his take.

“I think if I can’t have a good doctor-patient relationship, I won’t be comfortable taking care of these patients and they should find someone who is better for them,” Marraccini told the publication. .

She then offered her perspective on the unvaccinated.

“We think they are on the backs of the people who took the vaccine,” she said. “There is no team playing. There is no team participation.”

Kenneth Goodman, founder and director of the Institute of Bioethics and Health Policy at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, said he believed it was good practice.

“Physicians owe a duty to their patients, all of them, not just to the one playing with the system,” Goodman said. “You are not exposing your patients to life-threatening disease.”

While Marraccini has faced backlash for her decision to apply a vaccine warrant, she defends her decision, insisting that it is not a strategy to “punish” the unvaccinated.

“It’s not to punish people,” she said. “Honestly, I have spent a lot of time talking to people. I have had teachers who are going to teach children who are not vaccinated and they [the teachers] are not vaccinated. It’s not great for our community. I have a big problem with this. … Some of these people are very high risk themselves. They cannot afford to get sick. I have seen patients die because they were afraid to go to the hospital. “