(WHDH) — A doctor recently announced that she has decided to no longer treat patients who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Lina Marraccini, a primary care doctor in South Miami, Florida, blasted her unvaccinated patients for their “lack of selflessness” and said they pose too great a risk to her staff, according to a letter obtained by WTVJ-TV.
“The health of the public takes priority over the rights of any given individual in this situation,” Marraccini reportedly wrote. “It appears that there is a lack of selflessness and concern for the burden on the health and well-being of our society from our encounters.”
Marraccini noted that she will stop treating unvaccinated patients starting on Sept. 15. They will be given one month to find a new health care provider.
Florida has been ravished by the COVID-19 Delta variant, with an average of 11,010 new cases and 253 deaths in recent days, data accumulated by the New York Times indicates.
Marraccini becomes the second doctor in the United States to announce plans to turn away unvaccinated patients, joining Dr. Jason Valentine, a physician at Mobile’s Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health in Alabama.
Beginning on Oct. 1, Valentine will no longer see unvaccinated patients, AL.com reported.
“If they asked why, I told them COVID is a miserable way to die and I can’t watch them die like that,” Valentine reportedly said of his decision.
Doctors are not “ethically required to accept all prospective patients” and they “should be thoughtful in exercising their right to choose whom to serve,” according to the American Medical Association.
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