Hundreds of northern Ontario health workers decline COVID vaccine

Hundreds of workers at hospitals and nursing homes in northern Ontario are saying no to the COVID-19 vaccine. 

But administrators say they can't force them to get the shot or send them home when they're already short-staffed. 

There have been posters on the walls of the Finlandia Village nursing home in Sudbury for weeks, trying to convince workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

CEO David Munch says they are "very fortunate" that only 20 per cent of their 260 employees have declined, some because of specific health concerns and some who "just don't want to get it."

He says with the flu shot, some workers who refused were sent home or given an assignment involving less contact with residents, but he says they can't do that with COVID, because staffing is already stretched so thin. 

"There is a staffing crunch and a staffing crisis in this field and we definitely support our employees any way we can so they can come into work," says Munch. 

He is confident that masks, gloves, hand-washing and physical distancing will keep residents safe even if workers aren't vaccinated.

Cathy Humalamaki, the president Unifor Local 1359 representing thousands of long-term care workers in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma, says most of the homes are seeing a 10-15 per cent rejection rate. 

She says at one home in the Sault, 90 of the 340 employees have said no to the COVID vaccine.

"I was quite shocked. For 90 of the members in one location, that's going to cause a huge problem if there's an outbreak in that home," she says.

Humalamaki says in a COVID outbreak, unvaccinated workers would likely be taken off the job, but she says they are so short-staffed already they may have to call in emergency help to make sure residents are properly cared for.

Health Sciences North reports that as of March 24, 3,100 of the 4,600 employees at the Sudbury hospital have taken the COVID vaccine and 140 have formally declined. 

At the Sault Area Hospital, of the about 1,000 workers offered the vaccine so far, about 100 have said they want to wait for a single-shot version or until their family can all get it, and about 5 per cent have refused outright.

"I don't worry about it. I think I'm out of worry, to be truthful," says Susan Roger, the vice-president of clinical operations and chief nurse executive.

"I would like to see everyone vaccinated, I know that would help. But I couldn't support a mandate."

Claude Martel has gotten one dose of the vaccine so far, as he looks after his wife Shirley in Golden Manor in Timmins.

"I worry. I didn't want to go in there and give anybody COVID. They have enough problems without getting that," he says.

Martel, who sits on the family council of the nursing home, hopes none of the staff refuse the vaccine.

"I don't think that's right. The job they have. They should have the vaccine," says the 71-year-old. 

But he remembers his time working in the Dome gold mine, where workers were forced to breathe in McIntyre Powder, which was meant to protect their lungs, but caused long-term health problems for many. 

"We had no choice. They forced it on us. You want a job, you take it and don't say nothing," says Martel. 

Ontario used to have a law requiring paramedics to get the flu shot.

North Bay paramedic Bill Kotsopoulos refused, was fired, and then picketed in front of the North Bay hospital for nine months until the Ontario government relented in 2002.

"I'm not a staunch supporter of the flu shot, but I don't go around telling people not to take it either," he told CBC at the time. 

"The whole idea is people should be informed about the medical treatment and have a voluntary choice."

Michael Hurley, the president of Ontario Council of Hospital Unions of CUPE, worked closely on the Kotsopoulos case and says the lesson for the COVID era is for employers to "treat them like adults" and not take the "rigid" approach of "everybody's going to do it because we tell you to."

"They do have a right to ask questions, they do have a right to determine what they do with themselves," he says. 

"All we need to [have] is a process with people where we answer their concerns and, if that hasn't happen, shame on the institution for not having that discussion."