QCOSTARICA – The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, said on Tuesday during the press conference from Casa Presidencial, he will go to court to criminally denounce all first responders who refuse to be vaccinated against covid-19, without having a valid justification.
Salas argues that these doctors, nurses, and technicians expose patients to contracting the virus that has already caused the death of 3,000 people (as of April 6) in the country.
He stated that when the vaccination campaign of the first group ends – that includes precisely health personnel – he will ask for the list of officials who refused to receive the doses, in order to file the respective criminal complaints.
“We continue to call in the friendliest way, in the most respectful way, all health personnel to be vaccinated in a timely manner. Unfortunately, there are people who, even so, deny the science that put them in front of that patient and they did not get the vaccine.
“I will have, as Minister of Health, to file a criminal complaint if they insist. When we have finished group one, I will request the respective lists from the CCSS (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social), INS (Instituto Nacional de Seguros), the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and the Ministry of Health, to file the corresponding complaints, because they are exposing patients, not only to the complications, but, to death,” Salas said.
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As detailed by the press office of the Ministry of Health, the complaints would be based on the executive decree on the mandatory nature of the 42889-S vaccine, which reforms 32.722-S, of the Regulations to the National Vaccination Law.
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The Minister’s statements occurred after the National Children’s Hospital had to isolate three patients, last week, for having direct contact with a pediatrician who tested positive for covid-19, after opposing being vaccinated.
Salas asserted that with their attitude these professionals are unaware of the scientific foundations they received during their university training.
He further reminded them, health personnel in the first line of emergency, that they are obliged to comply with the Hippocratic principle, which demands of them to “first do no harm”.
“A health professional who decides not to get vaccinated is denying those scientific foundations that he received when he went through a university and that allowed him to be in front of a patient today.
“This is a matter of utmost responsibility and respect for that call that we doctors have to ‘do no harm first’; getting vaccinated is ‘first do no harm’,” Dr. Salas said.
On March 11, the Ministry of Health issued an order that establishes the obligatory nature of the vaccine for health personnel in the first line of emergency.
Only those professionals who present any contraindications to the vaccines would be exempt.
“They are being given a lot of opportunity with dialogue, approach, conviction, almost going over again the scientific bases they learned at university, which led to the discovery of vaccines, which has been the most important discovery in public health, in addition to drinking water. and the sewerage, to reduce infectious diseases in recent years, that we have eradicated smallpox, that we do not have people paralyzed by polio.
“(…) Still, a person who has learned all that, who knows how it works, who knows the scientific basis, and who does not want to do it, of course, there will be repercussions,” the minister warned.
The CCSS, for its part, has not yet clarified the sanctions for workers who refuse to be immunized.
In the case of the pediatrician from the National Children’s Hospital who was infected, the administration of that medical center assured that she will first try to convince the doctor about the importance of getting vaccinated, but she did not rule out applying other measures if the doctor does not change her position.
