Health-care unions welcome vaccine plan, warn precautions have to continue

The heads of both the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) and SEIU-West — which represents thousands of health-care workers in the province — agree it’s a good move to have health-care workers among the first in line to get the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines.

“They are filtering through every virus (and) every sickness as they continue to do their work and they still have to live in the world. So I think it’s important for us to protect those frontline folks and then roll it out to folks who are a little bit further away from the actual outbreaks or the front end of the pandemic,” SEIU-West president Barbara Cape said Friday.

Earlier this week, the provincial government revealed its plan for the vaccine rollout, including a pilot project next week that will consist of about 1,950 health-care workers.

Those health-care workers who are most likely to come into contact with the virus or those who work with the most vulnerable are also among those eligible in the first phase of the plan.

Some health-care workers are a little hesitant about the vaccine, but SUN president Tracy Zambory said many are excited.

“I have had contact from members who say it’s like the light at the end of their tunnel,” Zambory said. “They feel very hopeful. In fact, that’s exactly what (one member) said: It was like an early Christmas gift for people who are battling COVID every day and were feeling a little bit sad and a little bit beat up.”

Both Zambory and Cape have some suggestions to help with the vaccine plan.

Cape believes the province needs to beef up the details when it comes to getting the vaccine out to Indigenous communities and northern populations.

“They are just as vulnerable a population, perhaps even more because of their remote northern locations, and we actually need to put extra effort into making sure that that vaccine gets to our First Nations (and) Metis communities as much as anybody else,” said Cape.

Part of the plan was to get people access to the vaccine as close to their homes as possible, but Zambory said this flu season, there were some clinics in small and rural areas that were shut down. So she’s calling on the Saskatchewan Health Authority to open those clinics back up for the COVID vaccine.

Hesitancy aside, both Zambory and Cape are recommending everyone in and out of health care do get the vaccine when they’re able.

“It’s not only about me and mine and what I feel. At this point in the pandemic, we have to start thinking as a community about protecting all of us, and that means taking the vaccine and doing the right thing to protect everybody in the community,” said Cape.

Cape explained that if people want masking and distancing rules to go away, then getting vaccinated is how that happens.

Zambory said nurses know that it’s going to take most of the next year to get the vaccine out to everyone, and so she’s imploring people to stick to the recommendations like hand-washing and small gatherings to keep numbers down in the meantime.

Zambory also believes the province should go ahead with some targeted shutdowns to help get a handle on current case numbers.