Sick of watching patients reject the COVID vaccine, a US doctor is refusing to treat them

[canetoad]

Washington: In Alabama, where the nation’s lowest vaccination rate has helped push the state closer to a record number of hospitalisations, a doctor has sent a clear message to his patients: Don’t come in for medical treatment if you are unvaccinated.

Jason Valentine, a doctor at Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health in Mobile, Alabama, posted a photo on Facebook last week of him pointing to a sign taped to a door informing patients of his new policy coming October 1.

“Dr Valentine will no longer see patients that are not vaccinated against COVID-19,” the sign reads.

Valentine wrote in the post, which has since been made private but captured in online images, that there were “no conspiracy theories, no excuses” stopping anyone from being vaccinated, AL.com reported. The doctor, who said at least three unvaccinated patients have asked him where they could get a vaccine since he posted the photo, has remained resolute to those who have questioned his decision in recent days.

“If they asked why, I told them COVID is a miserable way to die and I can’t watch them die like that,” wrote Valentine, who has specialised in family medicine with Diagnostic and Medical Clinic since 2008.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/sick-of-watching-patients-reject-the-covid-vaccine-a-us-doctor-is-refusing-to-treat-them-20210822-p58kv1.html

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Wow! Can a doctor really refuse to see patients that way?

[Tanuki]

4. I have read in the past of pediatricians giving notice that families who refuse

to vaccinate their children against the routine diseases would have to make other arrangements after a certain specified date (to allow time to find another doctor). They were told they posed an unacceptable risk to babies in the waiting room who were too young to be vaccinated or to others who might be immune compromised or who had medically legitimate reasons not to have been vaccinated.

[Nay]

5. Sure. Doctors can 'fire' patients who won't follow advice. Of course, many patients don't

follow advice and are kept on because they are only hurting themselves -- but lots of docs will fire you for doing (or not doing) things that endanger other patients and office staff. Like not vaccinating.

Although docs can refuse you as a patient for other reasons, too. A friend of mine, a Type 1 diabetic, was fired for not following advice. She actually WAS doing what he said, but he didn't believe it. What's sorta funny about that doc is that she's outlived him. She's 81 now and in OK health.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

6. Yes.

My endrocrinologist doesn't take in bigots,racists, (she's from India and is sick of racist bullshit) She refuses to treat people who don't mask up she pretty much hates magats as much as I do.

She has a standalone private practice,not a corporate Dr.. She can refuse to treat certain people as is her right.

[Wingus Dingus]

10. Don't they turn down Medicare and Medicaid patients all the time

because they don't like the low reimbursement?

[Joinfortmill]

2. 👍

[left-of-center2012]

3. Yep - been posted a few times

DU search should find a lot of comments that were posted to previous threads.

[leftstreet]

7. Asshole. Healthcare is a RIGHT, not a privilege

If he can't accept his oath "first do no harm..," maybe he should become a stock broker or something.

[niyad]

9. He is protecting his staff, other patients, and himself. How does that violate "do no harm"?

[leftstreet]

11. All he talks about protecting is his feeeelings n/t

[niyad]

14. So what? He is still protecting all of them.

The willingly unvaxxed can go to traitor45**'s demon sperm doctor.

[leftstreet]

15. He didn't take an oath to protect his staff n/t

[niyad]

16. What, exactly, is your problem? Doctors can choose their patients. And you are refusing

to acknowledge that he is observing the "do no harm" in protecting his sane patients."

Perhaps you should get a medical degree and Iimit your practice to the unvaxxed, unmasked covidiots.

[leftstreet]

17. I said healthcare is a right

I have no "problem" beyond that

[Elessar Zappa]

12. Doctors are allowed to fire patients.

It would be a different story if a ER doc refused to treat them but this is a non-emergent private practice. They can absolutely screen their patients.

[Crunchy Frog]

22. They can get it from someone else. Pediatricians do this all the time.

[left-of-center2012]

25. OMG !

Doctors can choose their patients. That's their right.

[SYFROYH]

8. Refusal to serve because of not following medical advice is fucked up.

and this might be the most fucked up reason why:

“If they asked why, I told them COVID is a miserable way to die and I can’t watch them die like that,” wrote Valentine, who has specialised in family medicine with Diagnostic and Medical Clinic since 2008.

Yes, sorry for your feelings but get over yourself.

[malaise]

13. I wouldn't even let them into the hospital let alone my private practice

You have Covid and didn't get a jab - no entry. Fuck off and die.

That is all

[Zeitghost]

18. I have

heard similar comments from the right about the HIV positive.

We used to be the party of compassion, but I fear COVID and Social Media may have changed that forever.

[malaise]

19. Given that there were no vaccines available for HIV, I doubt that you heard that

Last edited Sun Aug 22, 2021, 07:46 PM - Edit history (2)

Still you are correct re the prejudice meted out to HIV positive people.
People have options this time. For political reasons they called Covid Fake and for political reasons many don't want vaccines.
If you want no part of the health system, don't come looking for help when your methods or lack thereof fail.
Someone I know well died two nights ago - this woman held a prestigious job and earned a PhD in the Social Sciences - she chose to follow the lunatics re vaccines.

I have tears for rational folks.

[Zeitghost]

24. I never claimed it was over vaccines, I thought that would be apparent...

It was regarding high risk personal choices leading to avoidable illness.

I see no difference between "You didn't want to get a vaccine, I don't care if you die" and "You didn't want to give up injecting heroin, I don't care if you die".


People die everyday from poor health decisions. Whether it's a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, drug use, smoking or not vetting vaccinated should not matter. You have chosen, for political reasons, to care about some and not about others.

Like I said, we used to be the party of compassion, even for those who made bad decisions in life.

[GoodRaisin]

20. From the linked article -

“The Post last month how “it took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of COVID for us to realise we need the vaccine”

This is kind of like saying “we wouldn’t have jumped off the 20 foot cliff if we knew it was going to hurt. We won’t try that again.”

Pure stupidity.

[struggle4progress]

23. "Emergency services should have started treating us before we reached the bottom!"

[MissMillie]

21. That's how my guy's doctor convinced him to get vaccinated

Doc told my guy that if he didn't trust his advice on a decision that should be a no-brainer, that he should look for a new doctor.