If a nursing home resident is not capable of providing informed consent, then they must have a designated MPOA and advanced directives that the facility is bound to follow. It's a big deal and very much matters.Maddy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:03 am
Is anybody discussing the role of informed consent? How many nursing home residents are even capable of providing it? Does it even matter any more? If (as I suspect) the vaccine will become a prerequisite to admission or retention in any congregate care facility, you've essentially taken away any choice in the matter.
As to a vaccine prerequisite for admission, I wonder. I can see where admission screening would include a negative COVID test, just like TB screening that has been done for decades as a condition of admission, but I'm not sure about requiring a vaccine.
All these concerns about being compelled to take the vaccine fly in the face of the doctrine of right to refuse care, which I find hard to imagine.
I think it will come down to refusal to take the vaccine may carry certain sacrifices with it. For example, inability to get a travel visa to visit certain (many?) foreign countries. Maybe private employers will require it. Maybe sports teams or assembly events will require it. Health insurance might cost more.
It's kind of like smoking. It's your right to smoke. But if you do, you will pay more for health insurance, life insurance. You will be limited in the places where you can smoke, etc.