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In a nation where science is king, logic prevails, right?
News headlines coming out of California reveal that state health authorities are advising healthcare workers to continue working while infected with COVID, provided they are asymptomatic. This most recent guidance comes as hospitals nationwide face staffing shortages made worse by the fast spread of the Omicron variant.
According to a letter released from the California Department of Public Health, health care personnel “who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and are asymptomatic may return to work immediately without isolation and without testing, and HCPs who have been exposed and are asymptomatic may return to work immediately without quarantine and without testing.” The letter further advises hospitals to assign infected staff to work with COVID-positive patients, but acknowledges this may not be possible due to extreme staffing shortages in various departments. Data sourced from the past 8 weeks shows a daily average of nearly 70,000 new cases and 47 deaths per day, at the time of writing.
Readers may recall that California was one of several states to first enforce a vaccine mandate among healthcare workers. All in the name of science and protection of vulnerable patients. Kaiser Permanente, a large healthcare employer placed over 2,000 employees nationwide on unpaid leave and imposed a December 1 deadline for vaccination. Hospitals around the country have fired unvaccinated healthcare workers, yet now stand woefully unprepared for the wave of hospitalizations resulting from the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Get vaccinated. Because…. science. Lose your job if you don’t.
Come to work infected. Desperation over science. Politics over logic.
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