Healthcare workers across our great nation are being forced to now make a decision between their own health or their livelihoods. In an industry that is already suffering from a lack of available workers and overwhelming patient-to-provider ratios, we cannot suffer the loss of any more healthcare providers. We have already seen a significant decrease in graduates from various health related professions from dental hygiene to nursing to lab technicians. As more states adopt vaccine mandates, our nation will lose our most valuable assets in fighting against COVID-19 and its many variants—our healthcare workers. 

As healthcare providers, we know very well what our patients’ rights are and often it is necessary for us to advocate for their right to either receive or decline treatment based on their informed consent. This is patient autonomy and is one of the absolute most important aspects of healthcare, along with benevolence and nonmaleficence. Just as we advocate for our patients’ right to refuse, we are now advocating for our own right to refuse treatment. While we are caregivers, we are also patients. As patients, we deserve the right to our own medical autonomy.

Many of us working in the medical, dental, etc. fields have been working throughout this pandemic. In our respective fields we use Universal Precautions—treat every patient as if they are contagious; treat every new surface as if it has not been sanitized yet; treat all instruments that are unpackaged as if they are not sterile.  We have seen what can and has happened to both our vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. We, more than anyone, have the most experience and information to draw from when making our own health decisions regarding SARS-COV-2. Many of us have made our decision to decline getting the SARS-COV-2 vaccine and many of us have made the decision to receive it. That is our right, our right to make that decision for ourselves based on our professional expertise, our clinical experiences, and our own personal health status. All we ask is that we are treated with the same respect we treat our patients with and will maintain our own medical autonomy.