Viewpoint: Unvaccinated ‘Thank’ Health Care Workers with Mockery, Death Threats

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the guidance, shortening the recommended isolation time for health care workers exposed to COVID-19 in high-risk situations from 10 to 7 days.

It’s not a surprise that the CDC came out with this new guidance. I would have been surprised if it didn’t. Health care workers, like the general public, who are asymptomatic after 7 days are probably not going to spread the virus to others, at least according to the what we currently know. The CDC constantly gets new data and adjusts its guidance accordingly.

Linda Spaulding, RN-BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP

That is why many people in the general public are upset; the recommendations change frequently. The public needs to understand that the CDC does not know anything about new variants, such as Omicron, until data are collected and analyzed. That can take weeks to months. The CDC wants to be sure it gets it as right as possible.

The public just wants to know everything NOW. That will never happen. Currently, and in the coming days, people are going to be amazed at how many COVID-19 cases there are and they are going to blame the scientists, medical experts, and the CDC.

There are 2 reasons and 2 reasons alone we are still dealing with COVID-19.

First and most importantly is the great number of UNVACCINATED around the world. Our issue in the US is the UNVACCINATED. The unvaccinated are incubators of the virus and that improves COVID-19’s ability to mutate and cause more variants.

The second issue is so many countries still do not have access to the vaccine. That has to change. And all of this is on the backs of the medical professionals who are trying to keep people alive and the message that the unvaccinated are giving them is “we don’t care if nurses, doctors, and first responders die, just take care of us when we get sick and save our lives.”

The people who are vaccinated and boosted are so appreciated. And they will probably live if they get a breakthrough case. But in the meantime, many health care workers are getting death threats from the unvaccinated, which is ridiculous. I was at a store with a friend yesterday and we were doubled masked because most people did not have on a mask in a county that has the highest level of cases right now.

We were laughed at and made fun of. We will be here after the holidays. How many of them will be sick? Many health care workers are just tired and fed up. But we have taken oaths to protect and do no harm hence we will continue to try to keep people alive who threaten and laugh at us.

That’s what we do.