A South Florida physician became the second physician to make the controversial decision to refuse treatment to unvaccinated patients in a state devastated by COVID.
Lina Marraccini, a primary care physician in South Miami, punished patients for a “lack of alteration” in a letter stating that not waking up posed too great a risk to her staff.
“This is a public health emergency: public health takes precedence over the rights of any individual in this situation,” Marraccini said in the letter, obtained by NBC 6.
“There seems to be a lack of disinterest and concern for the burden on the health and well-being of our society since our meetings.”
The doctor said the ban on unvaccinated patients is due to FDA approval for the Pfzier vaccine. On September 15, he will stop seeing unvaccinated patients if they have not received the first shot. But exceptions can be made.
“If any of our patients have a valid medical reason for not having the vaccine or have the first vaccine before September 15, let us know,” he wrote.
Patients will have a month to find another provider if they wish, during which time he said his office will continue to offer virtual appointments for unvaccinated patients.
Florida is experiencing a significant increase in the infectious and deadliest variant of the Delta statewide, which overloads hospitals. According to the latest data released on September 2, Sunshine State recorded 129,240 new cases and 433 new deaths.
Marraccini joins Dr. Jason Valentine of Alabama, the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country, who announced in August that he would no longer see unvaccinated patients as of Oct. 1.
“We still don’t have excellent treatments for serious illnesses, but we do have great prevention with vaccines,” Valentine wrote in a letter to his patients. “Unfortunately, many have refused to take the vaccine and some end up seriously ill or dead. I can’t and won’t force anyone to get the vaccine, but I also can’t keep watching my patients suffer and die from an eminently preventable disease. “
Marraccini says he is not breaking his Hippocratic oath, an old ethics oath made by doctors that forces doctors to treat all patients to the best of their ability, he told Newsweek.
He told the newspaper that he should consider his other patients immunocompromised or suffering from other medical conditions that could make the virus more deadly.
“The Hippocratic oath is very much based on science. I am following science. I apply it for the benefit of the sick ”.
Under the Civil Rights Act, physicians cannot deny treatment based on a patient’s age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin, but it is unclear whether a physician may refuse to treat a vaccinated patient.
According to the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics, physicians are required to treat emergencies, but otherwise “are not ethically required to accept all potential patients … under certain limited circumstances.”
He told the media that only 10 to 15 percent of his patients doubted or refused to receive the vaccine.
“I understand that people are free to choose, but for me it’s a problem when it affects other people,” Marraccini told NBC 6.
“When it comes to other people’s safety, when it comes to the fact that it’s a global health and community health issue, right now, I really say that’s where the sand line draws me,” he said. he said. dit.