Florida health crisis: doctor to stop treating unvaccinated people against COVID-19

A doctor in Florida will stop seeing patients who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 in his office, as a precaution against the risk of contagion in a US state that only recorded more than 6,600 coronavirus-related deaths last August.

“It’s an emergency health problem” and public health has “priority over the rights of anyone in this situation,” said Dr Linda Marraccini in the letter she sent to her patients to inform them that will only see those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 in his office.

However, unvaccinated people will be offered the option to take charge of video consultation.

Marraccini’s decision prompted the rejection of some Twitter users who described as “shameful“Have the doctor tell unvaccinated patients” to find another doctor, “if what they want is to be treated in his office.

But the Miami doctor maintains that, “When it comes to the safety of others, a global health issue and the community” like this pandemic, a clear line is drawn.

In the letter, the doctor communicates to all his patients that from the next September 15 it will no longer serve those who are not vaccinated.

Florida has been online for consecutive weeks since August record numbers of hospitalizations, infections and deaths, Although hospital admissions have gradually declined and now stand at 13,292, down from 13,451 on Monday, according to the Florida Hospital Association (FHA). Corn More than 6,600 people died from COVID-19 in Florida in August, averaging more than 213 deaths per day, making it the deadliest month since the pandemic began in March 2020.

For comparison, in August 2020, 5,186 people died in this state due to the COVID-19, which is now wreaking havoc with the spread of the more contagious delta variant.

While the full vaccination rate in Florida reaches 64% of the population, the death toll is very high, with a total of 46,973 deaths by the coronavirus and 3,354,836 infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As for the positivity rate, it fell last Friday to 15.2%, the lowest since mid-July.

Marraccini states that Your decision is based on science and you aim to keep other patients and staff in your office from putting themselves at unnecessary risk.

He insists that this personal decision do not violate the Hippocratic Oath to which doctors are obliged, since it offers the possibility of a video consultation, and, in addition, it will assist patients who, for health problems have not been vaccinated, took the chain 6 South Miami.

“There have been millions of deaths around the world, so it’s not something to ignore. This is not a patient who doesn’t want to be proactive about their weight, blood pressure, or cholesterol. It concerns us all, ”the doctor said in the letter.

(With information from EFE)

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