The Health Ministry is concerned doctors who have not been vaccinated for the coronavirus could release a larger viral load and be at higher risk of infection.
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According to Health Ministry guidelines, hospital management and healthcare providers must act to ensure these doctors' work is carried out "within the framework and through means that do not put patients and staff at risk."
The demand to keep unvaccinated doctors away from high-risk patients, revealed here for the first time, is unprecedented in the history of Israel's healthcare system. The demand was relayed to Clalit Health Services General Director Ehud Davidson and Laniado Hospital Medical Director Zvi Shimon and CEO Nadav Chen following complaints about two senior physicians: a hematologist at the Clalit-run Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot and an orthopedist at Laniado Hospital in Netanya. According to the Health Ministry, the two physicians have called on people not to get vaccinated and are therefore "misleading the public and could be putting it in danger."
The Health Ministry demanded Davidson and the directors of Laniado Hospital "clarify the doctors' activity has nothing to do with the healthcare provider or the hospital" since, according to the complaint, both doctors note their titles, their specialties, and their place of work in their posts on vaccines.
The Advisory Investigative Committee on Misleading Advertising of Health Products was tasked with relaying the demand.
In the complaint filed with Davidson, the Health Ministry committee heads noted online posts by Dr. Michal Haran, a senior hematologist at Kaplan Medical Center, included "unfounded assertions" that "intimidate the public."
"Her posts have reverberated with fringe groups, some of them charlatan, that frequently express opposition to the vaccination program and implement scare tactics and undermine confidence in the health system," the committee said.
"Dr. Haran's posts pose a public health risk through the creation of an effect of intimidation and lack of trust, in particular, because she does not qualify her remarks or at least recommend consulting with a doctor. Many hear her remarks and trust her representation as a senior specialist employed by the Clalit healthcare provider and Israeli hospitals. Dr. Haran is making use of her title, her expertise, and her employment at hospitals owned by the Clalit healthcare provider. She continues to call for people to avoid vaccines despite the damage and the risk of the corona disease and despite evidence of the efficacy of the vaccines in reducing severe morbidity."
In a separate letter to Haran, the committee wrote that she presented conclusions that were without professional basis, in which she stated "resolutely that compared to corona vaccines, this is a 'technology that has not been tried on humans thus far' and that this is a medication that hasn't undergone the accepted stages.'
On Thursday, the heads of the Health Ministry committee also wrote to the heads of Laniado Hospital about orthopedic hand surgeon Dr. Avshalom Carmel.
"He is making use of his degree and his expertise and continues to call to avoid vaccination despite the damage and the threat of the corona disease and despite evidence of the efficacy of the vaccines in bringing down severe morbidity."
In posts to Twitter, Carmel wrote. "If you are young, you should wait with the vaccine" and "If I were young, I would prefer to get sick." He shared the hospital director's call for employees to vaccinate under the headline: "Here is deeply entrenched corona-fascism."
In its complaint, the committee demanded Carmel remove all of his previous posts on the vaccine and cease his posts "that do not rely on established data as is customary in the medical profession in a way that will mislead the public and could put it at risk." The committee cited concerns these posts constituted a violation of the law regulating doctors' posts.
In a statement, the Laniado Hospital said, "The hospital's position is that the vaccine is a game-changer in the fight against the coronavirus. This position was disseminated to all workers by the hospital's medical director, Professor Zvi Shimoni, and hospital management encouraged all staff as well as the general population to get the vaccine. Any other position, insofar as it exists, is contrary to our position. With the reception of the information concerning the doctor in question, a conversation was held between the medical director, and he was reprimanded for his remarks."
Carmel responded, "I do not represent Laniado, and I always wear a mask with patients and do not put them at risk. A patient who has been vaccinated – their risk in meeting with me is negligible."
He said he believed that "before young people get an experimental vaccine, they should know about the dangers and risks of a vaccine that received emergency approval. I make information available to the public that the Health Ministry does not make clearly accessible. I don't oppose vaccines and encourage people at risk to get vaccinated."
In a statement, Clalit and Kaplan Medical Center said, "The hospital is putting a great deal of effort into the vaccination of medical staff and the general public and has high vaccination rates among its staff. The hospital's position on the importance and safety of vaccines has been published among employees as well as the general public, through all the tools available to us. Hospital management made clear to Dr. Haran not to make use of Kaplan's name while presenting her personal opinions and that she must emphasize they have not earned hospital support, and for the record, that's what she does. We emphasize that Dr. Haran is not employed full-time and that within the framework of her limited activity at the hospital, strict adherence to all Health Ministry guidelines is maintained."
Haran said, "I did not speak out against vaccines or the coronavirus vaccine, and I find this dichotomy between opponents and supporters problematic. It prevents genuine scientific discussion. As a doctor, I update patients at risk for medications, and I am always cautious when a new medication comes along. What I did is raise concerns about the possible risks of a coronavirus vaccine made with innovative technology that has not been tested to such an extent and has not been fully approved to date. I came to the not unreasonable and not illogical conclusion that every such concern must be raised."
Haran added that she personally could not receive the vaccine "for medical reasons."
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