The Victorian President of the Australian Medical Association has today been reported as saying that “COVID deniers” and “anti-vaxxers” should opt out of the public health care system should they catch the virus.
In a report in The Guardian, Dr Roderick McRae, says those who do not believe COVID-19 is real or a threat should advise their families and health practitioner that they don’t wish to receive public health system care should they contract COVID-19.
Dr McRae, who is an intensive care physician and anaesthetist, said health care workers were fatigued from lockdowns, virus outbreaks and staff shortages.
“Within the public hospitals, the knees are knocking as restrictions ease, because the situation is stressed to the point that tents are going up outside of the public hospitals to facilitate the removal of ill patients from ambulances, so those ambulances can go and get the next patient,” he said.
He said the health system was also working to juggle a backlog of patients forced to delay their elective surgery because private hospitals and staff were being redirected to treat COVID patients.
“So these patients continue to suffer some pain or disability for a longer period of time, and they’re often patients who’ve been double vaccinated, they’re elderly, and they’ve done everything right, but their knee replacement is being delayed and the public hospital waiting lists are growing,” Dr McRae said.
“We’re all juggling everything the best we can to avoid and prevent deaths. We know as we reopen it’s the unvaccinated who are going to get COVID, and they are going to get great hospital treatment with many new experimental drugs, even though they think the vaccine is ‘experimental’.
“A whole lot of these people are passionate disbelievers that the virus even exists. And they should notify their nearest and dearest and ensure there’s an advanced care directive that says, ‘If I am diagnosed with this disease caused by a virus that I don’t believe exists, I will not disturb the public hospital system, and I’ll let nature run its course’” he told The Guardian.
Victoria’s deputy premier James Merlino was quick to reject Dr McRae’s comments.
“I can understand the sentiment but that’s not the way we operate. We need to care for every single Victorian,” he told ABC Radio.
