21 July 2021
At least 200 health and care workers continue to die from COVID-19 every day, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) reports.
The ICN’s concerns about low vaccination rates among nurses and other health care staff has been highlighted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In a story featured yesterday on BBC World Service radio and television and its website, the BBC’s Global Health Correspondent Tulip Mazumdar reported that nurses and other health care workers are being “left behind” in efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.
The ICN, working in collaboration with the World Health Organization, put the BBC in touch with National Nursing Associations around the world to provide information about the situation. In consequence their stories are being aired to many millions of BBC viewers, listeners, and readers worldwide.
ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton, a scheduled guest speaker at this year's ANMF (SA Branch) Annual Professional Conference, is quoted about the fact that at least 200 health and care staff are dying every day from the virus.
Mr Catton said: “If this was an airline going down every day with 200 people on board, there'd be immediate investigations”.
He said nurses and health care workers are continuing to go to work, knowing that they are at higher risk from the virus and that the vaccine could protect them. He said they are being left behind while other people who are far less vulnerable than they are being vaccinated.
“It feels that, despite all of the warm words of support, nurses and health care workers are in some way dispensable or disposable,” Mr Catton added.
In May 2021 WHO confirmed that at least 115,000 health and care workers have died from COVID-19. However, given the lack of reporting, the ICN believes the true figures are probably much higher.
Commenting on those figures and the lack of vaccines for health and care staff globally, WHO’s Global Health Workforce Alliance Executive Director Dr Jim Campbell said: "It's a moral responsibility that we should all be concerned about".
The ICN continues to urge countries to record data about their health care workforces, including the number of staff who have contracted the virus, and how many have died from it.
View the BBC-TV report below:
And website coverage
here.