UNA urges nurses and all Albertans to register for COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible 

United Nurses of Alberta urges members, other front-line health care workers, and all Albertans to pre-order COVID-19 and influenza vaccine on the Alberta Government’s fall respiratory diseases website s soon as possible. 

The website, which was made accessible to Alberta citizens on August 11, is found at https://bookvaccine.alberta.ca/vaccine. 

“No nurse or other health care worker should have to pay to be immunized against COVID-19,” said UNA First Vice-President Danielle Larivee, a public health nurse. “As public health policy, this approach is extremely harmful, and this dangerous policy needs to be changed immediately. 

“All health care workers face infection risks on the job every day,” said UNA Second Vice-President Karen Kuprys. “This misguided policy endangers every UNA member and every other health care worker in Alberta, not to mention all Albertans. Free vaccines should be provided in a timely fashion for every Albertan who wishes to be immunized.”

If the government does not rescind this dangerous policy, UNA is committed to aggressively pushing all employers where UNA members work to cover the immunization costs of nurses and other health care employees. 

UNA also encourages all members to call or write their MLA to express their concern about this policy. 

Registering does not ensure Albertans will be given access to a vaccine but only signals an individual’s wish to be vaccinated, the government said on June 13 in a news release from Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange.

As a result of the policy, there is evidence that as many as a quarter million Albertans who wish to be immunized against COVID-19 will be denied access to life-saving vaccine because of this decision, which puts politics ahead of the health of Albertans. 

The official statement from LaGrange on June 13 said the provincial government has ordered 250,000 fewer doses of updated COVID-19 vaccine this year and will be charging most Albertans including health care workers who are able to receive the vaccine.

Health care workers need to register their intention to be vaccinated as soon as possible because if they fail to do so, they could end up being unable to receive the vaccine. 

The release also said vaccination will no longer be available through community pharmacies but can only be booked on line or by calling the Health Link 811 line. Alberta Health Services confirmed to UNA today that there is no alternative to the respiratory diseases website for health care workers to register to be immunized. 

Vaccination will now only take place at a limited number of public health clinics.

A group of retired public health professionals, assistant deputy ministers of health, and academic public health experts harshly criticized the policy as excessively bureaucratic and designed to suppress interest in COVID immunization to appeal to anti-vaccine sentiment among the premier’s political supporters.

This policy will limit the freedom of Albertans to choose vaccination by intentionally limiting supply and penalizing those who cannot afford the vaccine despite the risk they may face, which the government has hinted could cost as much as $110 per dose. Citizens of other provinces will not be required to pay for this basic public health measure. 

This, in turn, is expected to result in more infections, more hospitalizations, and more deaths than in other provinces, as well as more pressure on Alberta’s already hard-pressed health care system.

NOTE: Members and other Albertans who have tried to use the site to indicate their wish to book a COVID-19 vaccination on the BookVaccine.Alberta.ca have had difficulty finding the correct form. It is unfortunate that the site has been confusingly designed. To book a vaccine, users will need to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button marked Pre-Order Now. https://bookvaccine.alberta.ca/vaccine/s/preorder