Everyone seems to be reacting to this in an expected fashion: how does it affect me? How dare they. They are trying to control me. They are despicable. They are disgusting. This is all a very natural human response.
How about you take a step back and look at it from another perspective. Doctors and other healthcare providers joined the profession to help people be healthy. We have always watched people make bad choices that affected their health but even those that struggle with following our advice at least make an effort and acknowledge that their choices need improvement. We treat these folks for decades. We treat their children, their siblings, their parents. They become family to us.
Now we watch them die a miserable death. It is preventable. They leave grieving wives, husbands, children, and parents looking to us for answers.. They just need to listen to the medical professionals that have their best interest at heart. They let other forces control their emotions and their choices. They die struggling to breathe,
If you don't think that takes an emotional toll on us then you don't have any idea how much of us becomes invested in our patients. Death after death takes its toll and we are affected. I can understand after hearing for the ten thousandth time that "covid has a 98% survival rate; I'm good without the vaccine" amongst the plethora of other reasons to reach a point where you say:" I can't keep watching my patients die because they will not follow my advice and get a vaccine. I will only see those patients that actually value my opinion enough to get the vaccine". Doctors and nurses are emotionally vulnerable too.
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