BBC highlights ICN’s serious concerns about low vaccination rate among nurses
The International Council of Nurses’ (ICN) concerns about low vaccination rates among nurses and other healthcare staff has been highlighted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In a story featured today on BBC World Service radio and television and its website, BBC’s Global Health Correspondent Tulip Mazumdar reported that nurses and other healthcare workers are being ‘left behind’ in efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.
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 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 healthcare 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 healthcare 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. Commenting on those figures and the lack 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."
ICN continues to urge countries to record data about their healthcare workforces, including the number of staff who have contracted the virus, and how many have died from it.
Download the communique here