Some shelter users in Yellowknife were offered $20 to get the vaccine. Was that ethical?
CBC
People who use the day shelter and sobering centre in Yellowknife — who are currently at the heart of a COVID-19 crisis in the N.W.T. — were given a $20 "token of appreciation" in exchange for being vaccinated early on in the territory's vaccination campaign, says the head of the NWT Disabilities Council.
"We understood the extreme vulnerability of this population and how they would be negatively impacted health-wise due to many having conditions listed as high risk," wrote Denise McKee, the executive director of the disabilities council, in an email to CBC News on Tuesday.
"It was also to help protect health services and resources as we understood if this population became ill, they would likely need hospital services."
Now, that's exactly what the territory is dealing with.
The day shelter and sobering centre in Yellowknife — operated by the disabilities council — was closed indefinitely over the weekend after a number of staff and clients tested positive for COVID-19.
The COVID-19 secretariat said it would no longer be publicly reporting the number of people who are underhoused who have tested positive for the virus or who have been hospitalized. Dr. Kami Kandola, the territory's chief public health officer, said on Tuesday however, that more than 70 people who are underhoused or who work to support people who are underhoused had tested positive.
The vaccine incentive program was quickly quashed by the NTHSSA. McKee said it was offered on the first day vaccines became available to service users, and more than 80 were vaccinated in the single day it ran.