Frustration grows among health workers in America's least-vaccinated state
CBC
The type of protest seen at Canadian hospitals this week is a familiar and unhappy fact of life for medical professionals in parts of the U.S.
American health workers have been waging a two-front battle for a while: against COVID-19 and against the anger over pandemic measures within their own communities.
When you pull up to one small-town health clinic in a semi-rural area of West Virginia, the first clue of that is the police car parked outside.
The second clue is the locked front door at the clinic, located inside the headquarters of the Berkeley County health department in Martinsburg, W.Va.
Workers here say they have endured abusive calls; shouting visitors; and threatening online posts, some of which have included their home addresses and phone numbers.
West Virginia is currently the least-vaccinated state in the U.S. by some yardsticks, with about half of adults fully vaccinated.
Some of the unvaccinated residents have taken their frustration out on health workers, prompting the request for police presence at the Martinsburg clinic.
Walid Fidama and Abdulhakem Alsadah have been friends for more than a quarter century. They joke about knowing each other's children since before they were born. They're both longtime members of the National Association of Yemeni Americans, socially and politically active in their home state of Michigan.