The vaccine: class division and chaos
By Martha Grevatt posted on December 21, 2020
To spotlight the need for COVID-19 vaccinations of hospital workers, Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., staged a photo op on Dec. 18.
Front line medical residents and fellows demand vaccine access, Dec. 18.
A group of medical residents created a media event of their own to protest their exclusion from the first group to be immunized. These doctors, who are finishing their medical education and serve on the front lines treating COVID infections, complained they were “First in the room, back of the line.” (NBC Bay Area, Dec. 18)
SAN FRANCISCO
Stanford Medical Center doctors who are completing their residencies and fellowships staged a protest Friday, saying they were passed over during the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations even though they work directly with patients who have the highly contagious disease.
A few dozen of the residents and fellows carried signs at the demonstration outside a door where the Palo Alto hospital was staging a photo opportunity for journalists covering the initial vaccinations. One protest sign read: “I saw 16 Covid patients in the last 24 hours . More than Double the amount of residents getting the vaccine.”
Some doctors took to Twitter to protest the vaccine distribution plan.
Hospital Staff Protest COVID Vaccine Distribution That Prioritizes Administrators Over Frontline Workers
On 12/18/20 at 4:55 PM EST
Hospital staff at Stanford Medical Center (SMC) are protesting after initial vaccine distribution plans left out frontline workers in favor of other healthcare officials instead.
On Friday, physicians, nurses and other hospital employees gathered at a large demonstration to protest a management decision that prioritized the immunizations of staff who weren t working directly with COVID-19 patients. Residents and fellows were essentially not included in the first round of vaccines despite working 80+ hours per week in the hospital treating COVID-19 patients, Dr. Earth Hasassari, a psychiatric doctor at SMC, tweeted.