COVID-19: More info needed about public sector mandatory vaccination plan, CUPE says

The president of CUPE NB said he’s not ready to endorse a new mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for public sector employees.

Premier Blaine Higgs told reporters late Wednesday that all public sector employees would be required to be vaccinated.

He said the decision was based on a recommendation from public health, but added that the requirement could be further strengthened by regulation, if necessary.

Stephen Drost said the union was approached by the New Brunswick Treasury Board with the proposal on Wednesday, but said the board lacks details about how and when the policy would be implemented.

He said CUPE has questions about how the policy would impact contracted workers and about the disclosure of vaccination information.

“Who’s holding that information?” Drost asked. “Because we’re talking people’s private medical information, and there are laws around that. There’s confidentiality around that.

“So there’s just a lot of really unanswered questions.”

Drost also said the program was framed as a choice of either being vaccinated or being subject to mask-wearing and mandatory testing, rather than a mandatory vaccination policy.

The policy is expected to cover health care and long term care workers and teachers.

The New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes said it is in full support of the program, but spokesman Mike Keating said it needs more information from the premier about its scope.

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“Because our employees are not government employees, we have to enact something or either be guided by a regulation or a cabinet order or the like,” Keating said.

“Otherwise (Premier Higgs’) authority would not extend to the private sector.”

Keating admits it has been a challenge convincing staff to get the vaccine. He said only 59.7 per cent of their roughly 7,000 employees were vaccinated fully as of Wednesday. He said 75.5 per cent had received one dose.

Keating also said 18.6 per cent — about 1,300 staff — refused any vaccinations.

“That particularly disturbing if there’s an outbreak at a home because they will automatically be down about 20 per cent of their staff at a time when they’re going to need more staff,” Keating said.

A University of Toronto doctor believes vaccinations, especially for health-care workers, are more important than ever due to the prevalence of the Delta variant.

Dr. Omar Khan, a professor of biomedical engineering and immunology, said vaccinations have been very effective at stopping the spread of most variants so far.

But he said Delta is an exception, with fully-vaccinated people able to contract and transmit the virus.

Unvaccinated people are at risk of severe illness with Delta.

He said health-care workers tending to Delta patients without being vaccinated could end up needing medical attention themselves.

“If you’re not protected against severe disease, than you could get knocked out, you get to go to the ICU,” Khan said. “And then that puts us in a situation where we may need a lockdown again.”

Details of the public sector vaccination policy are expected in the coming days.