Is resisting Covid-19 vaccination a “problem”? A critical policy inquiry of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers

Abstract

As the COVID-19 global vaccination campaign was launched in December of 2020, vaccination became mandatory for many healthcare workers (HCWs) worldwide. Large minorities resisted the policy, and the responses of authorities to this resistance led to damaged professional reputations, job losses, and suspension or termination of practice licenses. The joint effect of dismissals, early retirements, career changes, and vaccine injuries disabling some compliant HCWs from adequate performance, has exacerbated existing crises within health systems. Nevertheless, the position of leading health authorities has been that the benefits of a fully vaccinated healthcare labour force - protecting health systems, vulnerable patient populations, and even HCWs themselves – achieved through mandates, if necessary, outweigh its potential harms. Informed by critical policy and discourse traditions, we examine the expert literature on vaccine mandates for HCWs. We find that this literature neglects evidence countering claims about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, dismisses the science supporting the contextual nature of microbial virulence, miscalculates patient and system-level harms of vaccination policies, and ignores or legitimizes the coercive elements built into their design. We discuss the implications of our findings for the sustainability of health systems, for patient care, and for the well-being of HCWs, and suggest directions for ethical clinical and policy practice.

Covid-19 vaccination decisions and impacts of vaccine mandates: A cross sectional survey of healthcare workers in Ontario, Canada

“…This line of research has also framed those who doubt or resist the policy as uneducated or misinformed (Achat et al, 2022; Dietrich et al, 2022), and in all cases troublesome, especially given their role as trusted sources of vaccine information (Evans et al, 2022). As a result, there has been limited research on the vaccination experiences or perspectives on mandates of HCWs themselves, free from preconceptions about the desirability of vaccination (Chaufan & Hemsing, Forthcoming). To address this gap, we surveyed HCWs in Ontario, Canada, documenting their experience of workplace vaccination mandates and their views about the impact of the policy on healthcare system sustainability and quality.…”