A video posted to Twitter on Thursday appeared to show a doctor at an urgent-care facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, refusing care to a minor with a non-COVID-related condition because he had not been vaccinated.
The video showed a doctor walking away from the the child’s mother, who is filming the encounter on her phone, after mentioning “the COVID vaccine” and then threatening to “call 911” and “confiscate your phone.”
According to the mother, “after diagnosing my son with an infection, they’re refusing to give him medication.”
In response to the inquiries of another employee, the doctor says: “I’m sorry, but I am the doctor here. This is our policy . . . she needs to leave.”
As she goes to the front office to ask the receptionist to “call security” and “call 911,” the doctor also expresses the worry that “she’s videotaping everything and she’s going to slander my name.”
“Oh, I will,” the mother responds, “I will give this to whoever I need to.”
According to the Twitter accounts that have posted the video, the facility in question is the RediMed North urgent care, part of the Lutheran Health Network.
The facility requires that visitors “wear your own face mask when coming to any in-office visit,” but while the Lutheran Health Network’s COVID policy recommends vaccination, there is no suggestion that vaccination is required for treatment.
Regardless of whether the doctor was or was not in compliance with the policy, the Kafka-esque absurdity of endangering a child’s well-being to remain in compliance with a politicized agenda drew outrage from conservative critics like journalist Sharyl Attkisson.
A child with a non-Covid infection is reportedly denied treatment because he’s not vaccinated for Covid.
Endangering his health… for his own safety.
(Scientists say kids have near zero statistical risk of harm from Covid).#UpisDown https://t.co/Gk7WnawahN— Sharyl Attkisson?️♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) October 22, 2021
According to the CDC, about 500 children under the age of 18 have died of COVID-related causes since Jan. 1, 2020, representing 0.01% of all deaths and 0.85% of all child deaths over the same period of time.
By contrast, during the Obama-era swine flu—in which at least 1,180 children perished—the government imposed no such restrictions on public facilities like schools and hospitals.
