COVID-19: Vaccine mandates lifted for health care workers in B.C.

Article content

More than two thousand B.C. health-care workers who lost their jobs because they refused a COVID-19 vaccine will now be allowed to return to work, after the B.C. government announced it was ending the public health emergency.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, made the announcement Friday morning in Victoria along with Health Minister Adrian Dix.

Article content

Henry said they were rescinding the public health emergency and lifting all the remaining orders, including the vaccine mandate that was brought in in 2021 for health-care workers.

“We have reached the point in this journey that we’ve been on where I am confident that we can now lift the requirements of the public health emergency … effective immediately,” she said.

She acknowledged the decision would make some people anxious and encouraged all British Columbians to continue to get vaccinated against the illness.

Dix also announced a provincial regulation requiring all health workers to report their immunization status for all high priority pathogens of relevance. That means doctors, nurses and other health professionals will be required to report their vaccination status for COVID,  influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, whooping cough and chickenpox.

The requirement will be phased in, beginning with the collection of immunity status records of all new hires and health-care workers terminated due to noncompliance with previous orders.

“While immunization will not be a requirement of employment, in the event of an outbreak health-care workers who are not immunized may be the subject of other action to ensure the safety of them, their coworkers and patients,” said Dix.

Article content

Article content

He said that action during an outbreak could include masking, modified duties or exclusion from work.

Henry said this new requirement is an important step to keep vaccine rates high and the continued protection of health-care workers.

“The data show that having that vaccine mandate in our health-care system made a huge difference in protecting people and in the confidence in our system, in our health care,” said Henry.

“With the understanding of how important immunization has been in getting us through this worst crisis that we’ve ever faced … is an opportunity to focus on all of the vaccine preventable diseases that we know can have a horrendous disruptive effect.”

Some B.C. mayors had been calling on the province to end the vaccine mandate for health workers because of the critical understaffing at hospitals and closure of some emergency rooms. This was a call supported by both Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon and Conservative Leader John Rustad.

Dix dismissed suggestions that Friday’s announcement was political, saying the decision was made looking at the data for COVID infection.

Article content

Henry said the decision was made looking at a variety of data from testing infection rates, outbreaks and to the number of people in ICU.

“We look at the vulnerability in certain populations, particularly people who are more likely to have severe disease from COVID-19, and we look at the evolution of the virus,” she said, adding the dominant strain is “a relatively stable” variant of Omicron.

Henry has previously said that health-care workers who don’t believe in the effectiveness of vaccines should think about a different career and on Friday stood by that statement.

“Immunization is one of the most important global public health measures that we have that has increased life expectancy, protected children, protected vulnerable people in our health-care system. And we all know that if you’re in a hospital, you don’t have a choice of who is caring for you. You don’t have a choice of who’s coming in to do tests on you,” she said, adding that she believes it’s morally the right thing to do to protect vulnerable people in their care.

The provincial public health order required the about 190,000 health-care workers in hospitals, long-term care homes and community health centres in B.C. to be vaccinated for COVID. The B.C. Public Service Agency also required its 30,000 employees to be vaccinated.

Article content

Almost 2,500 health-care workers were terminated for not getting a vaccination to work in B.C.’s hospital system, and almost half of them worked in the Interior and Northern health authorities, according to B.C. government data released in 2022.

Earlier this year, a court case from 15 health-care workers challenging the mandate was dismissed in B.C. Supreme Court. They had unsuccessfully argued the continuation of the mandate “was an unreasonable exercise” of the powers of the health officer.

Falcon, who is also the leader of B.C. United, has been pushing the government to scrap the vaccine mandate for more than two years, asking Premier David Eby and Dix to provide the science to back up their decision.

“I’ve emphasized the fact that we were the only jurisdiction in North America still punishing these critically needed workers — all to no avail,” he said. “So, what changed? Did some new science magically appear? Or is a looming election the only reason they’ve shifted direction? You can decide for yourself, but the damage to our health-care system and the impact on the fired workers will take much longer to heal. That’s what happens when ideology trumps evidence.”

Article content

Falcon then called for Dix to be fired.

Rustad called the delay in removing vaccine mandates for health-care workers a failure of leadership.

In a statement Friday, he said B.C. was the only province in the country still enforcing what he called outdated restrictions.

“The NDP’s delayed response to lift these mandates is a clear example of their failure to listen to the concerns of our health-care workers,” said Rustad.

Some vaccine status information was previously collected by health authorities but it now will be collected through a provincial registry to ensure reporting is consistent throughout B.C., the government said.

The government says reporting vaccination status aligns with health-care workers’ ethical and moral duties to take science-based measures, such as vaccination, to reduce the risk of harm to people in their care.

With files from Susan Lazaruk and Katie DeRosa

[email protected]

Article content