The Medical Association’s president Marit Hermansen says it is strange that the government wants to prioritize government personnel in the vaccine queue. A doctor in Trøndelag is furious.
“I got angry. Really angry, sort of. It felt so unfair,” doctor Trude Basso at St. Olav’s hospital told newspaper VG about the vaccine redistribution.
The government, the Norwegian parliament (Storting), the courts, the Palace, and some agencies will be given priority and receive 500 corona vaccine doses.
The president of the Norwegian Medical Association says that the National Institute of Public Health (FHI) has opened up to prioritize this group in a challenging infection situation. That is not the case now, she believes.
Only health personnel in the southeast and north regions have been given priority in the vaccine queue.
“Strange”
“I think it is strange that it is being done now when we do not have good enough vaccination coverage in the health service and the risk groups in the population,” Hermansen told news bureau NTB.
Hermansen says she understands that the doctor at St. Olavs is angry – she is working at a hospital where health personnel is not a priority.
The Norwegian Medical Association has advocated that health personnel in all health regions should be given priority so that 80% of them are vaccinated.
“Vulnerable health personnel must be vaccinated, and I think it must be a goal that the coverage rate should be 80%,” Hermansen said.
Controversial prioritization
The government’s decision to prioritize itself and other state officials in the vaccination queue was not made on the advice of the professional authorities.
The government also did not ask the professional authorities for a new assessment of the situation.
Teachers quickly criticized the prioritization. Several politicians on the left side of the political spectrum have demanded teachers to be prioritized, and Storting politicians in both the Labor Party and the Red Party have given up their vaccine doses and asked for their doses to be given to the teachers.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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