Naked in the Woods

Amid a "pandemic of the unvaccinated," more than half of the nation's health care workers have yet to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and many say they never will.

"I've done enough research to know that this vaccination is just another scam by the pharmaceutical companies and I will not be putting it in my system," one of the district nurses in the Portsmouth Health District stated to the Sun.

Similar alarming sentiments, the main argument of on-line conspiracy theorists, have also been shared by several other health care workers who spoke to our reporter, with a high number of them willing to walk away from the job if ever the taking of COVID-19 vaccines become a requirement of their jobs.

The striking number of unvaccinated staff have caught the attention of management who on August 23, 2021, launched a "vaccination initiative" to at least get the figures of vaccinated health care workers here up to 63%.

According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Dominica China Friendship Hospital (DCFH) Dr. William Dexter James, between August 3rd and 5th, it came to their attention that four members of staff at the country's main health care facility had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Immediately management decided to launch an antigen testing programme under the theme "Know Your Status" for all members of staff at the hospital to assess the COVID status of all their staff.

The data gleaned from the initiative provided management with an assessment of the safety of the environment to practice medicine and during this data-gathering exercise, they took the opportunity to obtain information on the vaccination status of all staff tested.

From the 490 staffers tested, 475 staff members came up with a negative antigen and 15 with a positive antigen.

The data further revealed that 58% of the hospital staff were unvaccinated, while 4% partially vaccinated and only 38% of staff were fully vaccinated.

The figures further revealed that among the highest vaccination group were doctors which came in at 63%; 10% were partially vaccinated and 27% were unvaccinated.

From the nurse's data only 27% of nursing staff were fully vaccinated and a surprising 70% unvaccinated.

Meantime, 33% of the orderlies have been fully vaccinated and 63% have not while 40 % of the wardens have taken the jab, whilst another 55% have not.

Nevertheless, the CEO has assured that, unlike other countries, the jobs of unvaccinated healthcare workers will not be affected; however, they will be subjected to a bi-weekly COVID-19 antigen test.