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Raleigh, North Carolina – News that UNC Health and Duke University Health System will soon require all their doctors and staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus has created a backlash from many residents of the Triangle.
The two hospital systems were among several across North Carolina to announce vaccination warrants Thursday, saying they must protect patients and set an example for the rest of the state.
“As an employee, but without patient care or contact, I should not have to take a vaccine that has not been fully approved by the FDA, and even if I do get the vaccine, I still have to wear a mask, ”said a duke. A health care worker told WRAL News.
“We have been working in a COVID atmosphere for over a year with appropriate PPE [protective gear] and guidelines. It is our personal right to decide when and what vaccines, if any, we want, like any other working American, ”said a woman from Wake County.
“I guess my body and my choice only apply when they want it to,” said a Harnett County woman who works in a hospital. “I don’t want this vaccine, period, and threatening my job and my livelihood and threatening dismissal if I don’t get it is immoral.”
But a Raleigh business owner who has been carrying out his own vaccine mandate for several weeks said Friday he does not regret the move.
Gus Gusler reopened the Players’ Retreat sports bar on Hillsborough Street a month ago, allowing only vaccinated employees and customers inside.
Gusler said he also faced a lot of backlash at first, but the move didn’t hurt business.
“We had a guy who showed up at 2:30 am, weakened, upset because he couldn’t get in. He threw up a chair and we had to call the police,” Gusler said.
Hundreds of others accused him online of creating “the first medical apartheid system,” he said.
Today, however, “98 percent of what we hear is just ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,'” he said.
Between them, Duke Health and UNC Health have nearly 17,000 unvaccinated workers. WakeMed, which will likely also require staff to be vaccinated, has 2,000 more who have yet to receive their vaccines.
Dr Tom Owens, senior vice president of Duke Health and chairman of Duke University Hospital, said he hopes other businesses and healthcare organizations will step up and start demanding that workers be vaccinated.
“We’re doing it for a reason. We didn’t take this decision lightly, but we’re worried about the trend we’re seeing,” Owens said.
North Carolina has seen a rapid increase in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, after months of decline.
Another 1,998 cases were reported on Friday, nearly double the number from last Friday. The state’s seven-day moving average is 1,293 cases per day, 66% more than a week ago and triple what it was just two weeks ago.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state has doubled since July 9, and the 817 patients reported on Friday are the highest total since May 11.
More than 94% of recent cases in North Carolina involve people who have not been vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
“Unvaccinated North Carolinas get needlessly ill, are hospitalized and die,” DHHS Secretary Dr Mandy Cohen said in a statement. “Don’t wait to get vaccinated, and if you haven’t received your vaccine, you should wear a mask indoors at all times when you are in public areas.
Only 57 percent of people aged 18 or older in North Carolina are fully vaccinated, and 3 percent have received a dose of the vaccine.
Gusler said he was happy hospitals were following his lead and said they wouldn’t regret it either.
“I think they will find out that it is not going to hurt your business,” he said.
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