Update 2: Surviving the Omicron Christmas
To my friends and supporters:
I wish all of you who celebrate a safe and merry Christmas. My heart particularly goes out to my brothers and sisters in frontline health care, especially community pharmacy.
This week, Shoppers Drug Mart has expanded its dangerous indoor symptomatic testing program. As Omicron continues to drive record numbers of infections in Ontario, this is a shocking abandonment of their duty to care for their staff and communities.
To my fellow Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacists who may be forced against their professional judgement to perform symptomatic tests, my heart breaks for you. But we can fight back.
Feel empowered to say no. Every worker, including you, has the right to refuse unsafe work. If you're asked to test symptomatic patients for COVID and you don't feel safe, refuse to do it. This may be more confrontational than you're used to, but your safety, and your patients' safety, are worth fighting for. Chances are, your Associate is just as unhappy with corporate policy as you are. And you cannot be fired or otherwise punished for defending your right to safety at work.
If you feel intimidated or bullied in your pharmacy, please email me confidentially at michaelvscovid@gmail.com . From there, I'll send you my Whatsapp or Signal if you need more security. My growing team and I are fighting for your rights, and your (anonymous) stories will help our common cause.
I wrote an op-ed for the Canadian Healthcare Network about this campaign of resistance. Since it's behind a paywall, I've copied the text below. Please share it, and our petition, as widely as you can.
Thanks once again for your support and for your valiant efforts in the war against COVID.
Michael
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MY FELLOW PHARMACISTS: we are currently staggering under the worst health crisis of our lifetimes. We're exhausted. So I won't waste words.
The Ontario government allows pharmacies to test symptomatic COVID-19 patients indoors, in the same airless counselling rooms that are used for vaccination.
Corporate pharmacy entities are delighted to take our tax dollars and do exactly this, potentially exposing vulnerable patients, staff and the wider community to the Omicron strain.
I believe that in the era of Omicron, testing symptomatic COVID-19 patients inside a pharmacy is not only reckless and dangerous, but constitutes an act of professional misconduct.
Individual associate-owners have no real power to resist head office and protect their stores, no matter what the Ontario Pharmacists Association may say.
The Ontario College of Pharmacists, despite their mandate to protect the public, have said and done nothing.
Therefore, the onus is on us, individual pharmacists, to protect our communities. We are not pawns of corporate greed, but proud, self-governing health care professionals. We are also protected by provincial employment law and cannot be fired for refusing unsafe work.
I therefore call upon all pharmacists who are pressured into unsafe testing, to:
REFUSE to perform symptomatic COVID-19 testing inside the pharmacy. If you must, test outdoors.
REFER symptomatic patients to testing centres.
REPORT indoor testing, unsafe working conditions and other dangerous practices to michaelvscovid@gmail.com . Send me an email to request my WhatsApp or Signal if you require end- to-end encryption. Your anonymity is guaranteed.
After all, I went public so you don't have to.
Michael Miranda is a community pharmacist who came to prominence after resigning from his position at Shoppers Drug Mart in protest of indoor symptomatic COVID-19 testing. He is based in Toronto.
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