Police in the Canadian province of Quebec are searching for a man they suspect of punching a nurse in the face for giving his wife a COVID-19 vaccine without his consent, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The man confronted the female nurse on Monday morning in the office of a pharmacy in the city of Sherbrooke, about 155km southeast of Montreal, where she was assigned to administer vaccines, police spokesman Martin Carrier said by telephone.
“Our suspect went directly into the office and began to yell at the nurse,” Carrier said.
The man appeared to be very shocked that his wife got vaccinated at the pharmacy “without his authorization,” and hit the nurse in the face, Carrier added.
Nurses globally have faced cases of abuse along with experiencing burnout on the job in the long fight against COVID-19, health advocates say.
It was not clear whether the suspect opposed vaccinations or whether his wife had indeed been inoculated at the pharmacy, Carrier said.
Anti-vaccine protests across Canada ramped up in the run-up to this week’s general election, with some demonstrations targeting schools.
Protesters had drawn the ire of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail for targeting hospitals and healthcare workers, and he has vowed to crack down on such actions.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said that his government would try to get a special law passed as early as yesterday to stop anti-vaccine protesters from demonstrating close to schools and hospitals.
“My patience has reached its limit,” he told reporters in Quebec City. “I think it’s important to leave our children and patients in peace.”
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