John Garvey (in his Catholic News Service column “Covid and Scientism” posted on the Catholic Standard website on Jan. 22, 2022) represents the moral musings of the outgoing president of The Catholic University of America about one of the worst infectious disease outbreaks to ever happen to our country. As nurses, we are perplexed as (in his column seemingly) he ignores the horrific morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 as if it doesn’t exist. Perhaps if you have not witnessed someone slowly dying on a respirator and the subsequent devastating impact on families, you don’t worry about it. We have many times. And we worry a lot!
The latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the highly regarded Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, January 20, 2022, states, “During both Delta- and Omicron-predominant periods, receipt of a third vaccine dose was highly effective at preventing COVID-19-associated emergency department and urgent care encounters (94% and 82% respectively) and preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations (94% and 90%, respectively).” This conclusion represents findings of an analysis of 222,772 emergency department and urgent care encounters and 87,904 hospitalizations of adults with COVID-19-like illness between August 2021 and January 2022 in 10 states.
The U.S. healthcare system is crumbling before our very eyes. As nurses, we beg you, take these morally responsible actions: love thy neighbor, get vaccinated, and get your COVID-19 booster shot. You will lower your risk of acquiring COVID-19. And should you get a breakthrough infection despite vaccination, you reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission to others who, for medical reasons, cannot get vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and significantly lower your chances of lying for hours, or even days, on a stretcher in the hallway of an understaffed, under-resourced emergency department. We are grateful to God for providing us with the tools to curb this pandemic – it is imperative to use them.
Janet Selway, D.N.Sc., C.R.N.P., F.A.A.N.P.
Patricia C. McMullen, Ph.D., J.D., C.R.N.P., F.A.A.N.P., F.A.A.N.
Elizabeth Hawkins-Walsh, Ph.D., C.P.N.P., P.M.H.S., FAANP
(Dr. Selway is an Associate Professor, Dr. McMullen is Dean Emerita and Dr. Hawkins-Walsh is an Ordinary Professor of Practice in the Conway School of Nursing at The Catholic University of America. Their views expressed in this letter to the editor are not an official position of The Catholic University of America.)
