Doctors at a South Florida hospital allegedly staged a walkout to protest an apparent surge in patients who are unvaccinated against COVID-19.
However, according to a spokeswoman of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida (R), there was no “walkout,” as first reported by MSNBC.
“It didn’t happen,” spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said via Twitter. “They went outside for a few minutes to call on people to get vaccinated. South Florida has a very high vax rate (by the way), and none of the hospitals are ‘overflowing,’ but most of the patients in hospitals are unvaccinated. The doctors didn’t deny treatment to anyone.”
It didn’t happen. They went outside for a few minutes to call on people to get vaccinated. South Florida has a very high vax rate BTW, and none of the hospitals are “overflowing,” but most of the patients in hospitals are unvaccinated. The doctors didn’t deny treatment to anyone
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) August 23, 2021
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Pushaw reiterated the same.
“South Florida has a very high vaccination rate, and hospitals do have the capacity to treat patients,” she said. “These doctors went outside for a few minutes while off duty early in the morning, not to protest or ‘go on strike’ — but to urge people to get vaccinated to avoid hospitalization.”
“MSNBC erroneously characterized the press conference as a ‘walkout,’” Pushaw emphasized, “but has since updated their headline and story.”
During the event, medical professionals at Palm Beach Internal Medicine complained of being fatigued and ripped “disinformation” about vaccines.
Notably, a reported 63% of Florida residents have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, thanks in large part to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ efforts to allow maximum vaccine access early on, particularly for the elderly, who are most vulnerable to the virus.
“It’s incredibly frustrating because we know the vaccines are safe and effective and it’s people that go out and talk against them that really go against physicians and medicine and science. It’s not the message we want to get across to people,” said one doctor at the walkout, JT Snarkski, according to Fox News. “Vaccines are safe and we need to get our communities vaccinated.”
“We are exhausted,” said Dr. Rupesh Dharia. “Our patience and resources are running low and we need your help.”
Dr. Ahmed El-Haddad of Jupiter Medical Center told WPTV News that doctors in the area are seeing a surge in patients infected with the Delta Covid variant.
“This time around, this variant is deadlier, it is impacting the lungs quicker, it is eating away at the lungs, it is causing more problems … and the patients are dying quicker,” he said.
“The heartbreak now, is we’re not just going in to work and working long hours, but we’re seeing people who don’t need to be in the hospital, who are healthy and young, who don’t have the co-morbidities that we typically see, and they’re getting this from a preventable illness,” said Dr. Ethan Chapin, who attended the walkout.
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Florida doctors protest fatigue from the coronavirus surge. @KerryNBC reports. pic.twitter.com/TwL2NO5Ay9
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 23, 2021
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This post has been updated with additional information
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