New Brunswick's unvaccinated doctors to be suspended at midnight

A handful of New Brunswick doctors will be suspended at midnight tonight for failing to get vaccinated. 

While the exact number isn't available, it's fewer than 10, says Dr. Ed Schollenberg, the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick. 

Only two of them, he said, are family doctors, but the number of patients affected isn't known. 

Schollenberg said doctors have to lead by example and also not put their patient's health in jeopardy. 

"You can't encourage patients to get vaccinated if you don't get vaccinated yourself," he said. 

Schollenberg said both of the province's health authorities asked doctors over the last few months to provide evidence of vaccination. 

"There was no other way to do it because when doctors get vaccinated, it just looks like any other person getting vaccinated," he said.

Some were vaccinated but hadn't gotten around to providing proof. Eventually, the list was whittled down to fewer than 10 — all in the Horizon Health Network. None were from Vitalité. 

Schollenberg said all were given sufficient notice that their licences would be suspended if they didn't get vaccinated. That notice went out last week, and the repercussions take effect on Wednesday. 

Schollenberg said there's no distinction between doctors who are unvaccinated and those who haven't produced proof of vaccination. 

"Technically it's the same thing as far as the hospital is concerned." 

He said he would have expected those with proof to have produced it by now. 

"So the ones we're dealing with, as far as we can tell, have not been vaccinated at all." 

Schollenberg said vaccine-resistant physicians are expressing similar concerns to the general public — and much of it is based on misinformation about the vaccine.