You know what they say, sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make a totalitarian power grab.
I mean omelet. Omelet is what I meant to say.
The Central Maine Medical Center, or CMMC, was already experiencing staffing shortages, but the vaccine mandate is pushing them over the edge.
"This action is being taken due to resignations of key staff that exacerbated an already fragile health care workforce," the statement said.
CMH spokeswoman Ann Kim said Tuesday afternoon that 84 staff members systemwide had either resigned or submitted their resignations in response to the vaccine requirement. About 230 staff have yet to get vaccinated or confirm their vaccination status.
Not to worry, Maine Governor Janet Mills is on the case!
"Now make no mistake:..."
Nothing good has ever followed that preamble.
"...we will do everything within our power – and everything to protect public health – to ensure access to health services for Maine people if Central Maine Medical Center employees refuse to be vaccinated and leave their jobs," she said in a prepared statement.
Well, almost everything in her power.
CMH's president and CEO, Steve Littleson, told the Portland Press Herald on Tuesday that though he supports vaccinations, he is appealing to the governor's office for an alternative to vaccines, such as weekly testing.
"We have patients to care for, and if there's a practical solution other than reducing services and cutting bed capacity, I'm all for it," Littleson said.
Governor Mills response? Let them eat... shortages.
Mills directed DHHS to continue working with CMMC and other hospitals to address workforce shortages.
How are they addressing these shortages?
Like all socialists do: Wait times!
Auburn [right across the river from Lewiston] Fire Department Chief Bob Chase said he was made aware last week that CMMC had put a diversion in place.
"We can still bring critical patients there if that's the best facility to get them stabilized," he said. "But again, the whole system is so strained (and) that's continuing to build on an already large patient backlog."
Chase said Auburn EMS had to bring three patients to Portland last week. They might bring three or four patients to a Portland hospital over the course of a typical year.
No biggie, Portland is just a hop, skip, and a 36-mile drive away!
He said it's the "whole system, not just CMMC struggling with this trickle-down effect." When EMS crews have to travel farther to transport a patient or wait longer at an emergency department to transfer care to hospital providers because of a backlog of patients, it means more time that that crew is unable to respond to other emergencies.
Look, Governor Mills is trying to save lives here, and all you can think about is trying to save lives here.
Oh, and there's this.
CMMC is a 234-bed acute care teaching hospital and one of two certified Level II Trauma Centers in Maine, Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor being the other.
Bangor is what, a little over 100 miles away?
As Governor Mills noted in a retort to Republicans who suggested using testing as an alternative to help alleviate the worker shortage:
"To say that Maine people will die as a result of expanded vaccination is repugnant, dishonest, and an insult to every Maine person who has lost their life to COVID-19."
You can tell someone has a strong argument when they ignore the strong argument and instead create a weak straw man version of it, and then attack that instead.
Naturally, the Governor provides a whole host of exemptions to having a substance injected into your body that you don't want and by a "whole host" I mean almost none.
There is the medical exemption, a particularly difficult hurdle to clear.
And... that's pretty much it.
What about if you already have natural immunity? Sorry, no, that would interfere with Governor Mills power rush.
Their reasoning is really interesting, and by "interesting," I mean nonsensical.
No. The U.S. CDC current clinical recommendations state: "Antibody testing is not currently recommended to assess for immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following COVID-19 vaccination, because the clinical utility of post-vaccination testing has not been established."
That pull quote makes no sense. Here's the full quote from the CDC, with the missing portion bolded:
Antibody testing is not currently recommended to assess the need for vaccination in an unvaccinated person or for immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following COVID-19 vaccination.
The rest of their statement is presumably a summation of what the CDC actually said which was this:
Antibody tests currently authorized under an EUA have variable sensitivity, specificity, as well as positive and negative predictive values, and are not authorized for the assessment of immune response in vaccinated people. Furthermore, the serologic correlates of protection have not been established, and antibody testing does not evaluate the cellular immune response, which may also play a role in vaccine-mediated protection.
Two observations:
- First, why haven't "the serologic correlates of protection" been established?
- Second, what is the mystery here? Natural immunity following an infection? That has not only been established generally, but studies have established it specifically regarding Covid.
You might ask whether wearing legitimately effective personal protection equipment like an N95 mask as routinely employed by medical professionals trained and certified in their proper fit and use might suffice.
As for the rest of us, we should strap random pieces of cloth across our faces in haphazard ways because that of course is very effective at making sure the governor is safe from having to look at our stupid faces.
What about religious exemptions?
Of course this country has a long history of ensuring that the state does not in any way interfere with the faith and religious practices of its citizens and so has long provided religious exemptions to the populace, except not any more.
As you can see from the explanation they provide, they did it because they can.
You have to understand, Governor Mills only has your best interests at heart. Here is her state CDC director explaining it to you mouth breathers.
Vaccination remains the best tool we have to keep you and your family safe from #COVID19, to keep you out of the hospital, and keep you from dying.
Well, I guess they got half of that right. They certainly found a novel way to "keep you out of the hospital."
Manufactured staff shortages!
As for keeping you from dying, I would think being allowed into a fully functioning trauma unit would be one really good way.
To sum up, in demanding health care workers undergo a medical procedure the governor of Maine has eliminated a long-standing religious exemption, refused to consider permitting the use of effective protection such as N95 masks for health care workers in lieu of a vaccination but still requires the use of ineffective protection for everyone else, all of which has resulted in unnecessary delays in her citizens receiving urgent medical care.
Why?
That's her story, and she's sticking to it.
I'm sorry, her majesty is sticking to it.
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Thanks to subscribers @hamster and @mrsswanson for the tip on the article!
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