RNAO’s continuing media profile: The October 2021 report

Throughout the month of October, RNAO continued to speak to the media about the impact COVID-19 is having on nurses and other health-care workers. Specifically, we spoke about the vaccine mandate for long-term care (LTC) workers and the urgent need to extend it to all health-care workers across all health sectors, the Ontario government’s worrisome reopening plan, and our urgent call to repeal Bill 124. Below is a summary of themes and examples of our extensive media exposure in October.

Big tech has a vaccine misinformation problem – here’s what a social media expert recommends

Facebook and other social media platforms spread massive misinformation and bear huge responsibility for the urgent threat to public health raised by the U.S. Surgeon General. This is a July 29 article by Anjana Susarla, Omura-Saxena Professor of Responsible AI at Michigan State University.

Media release: Mandate vaccinations for all health-care and education workers and immediately establish safe zones to protect patients, students and workers

Toronto, Oct. 7, 2021. At a time when the federal government is mandating vaccinations for all of its public workers and municipalities, such as Toronto is doing the same, the Ontario government must move speedily to require all health-care and education workers across the province be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

RNAO commends move to mandate vaccination for long-term care staff and urges the same for all other health and education sectors

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) commends and fully supports Minister of Long-Term Care (LTC) Rod Phillips’s announcement on mandatory vaccination for all in-home staff, support workers, students and volunteers in LTC, effective Nov. 15. As RNAO has publicly stated many times, this is a necessary action that will further protect LTC residents and staff from COVID-19 infection caused by unvaccinated health-care workers.

RNAO calls for the government to shift its focus back to protecting Ontarians through vaccination

At a time when long-term care (LTC) residents are still being infected and dying from COVID-19 because of unvaccinated health-care workers, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) says the provincial government's announcement Friday should have been about mandatory vaccination for all health-care workers. Instead, it was about raising capacity limits for sporting events.

RNAO’s continuing media profile: The August 2021 report

RNAO‘s top priority in August was to urge the provincial government to mandate vaccination for health-care workers, teachers and education staff, as well as implement vaccine passports  for all eligible Ontarians. Our media activity reflects that purpose. The announcement of a vaccine certificate system on Sept. 1 demonstrates the power of speaking out.

MSF: Following full FDA approval, Pfizer-BioNTech must share COVID-19 vaccine technology to boost global supply

Earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the US. The following is a media release from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) addressing the COVID-19 crisis in Africa and the devastating lack of vaccines.