A Florida doctor said she'd stop treating most unvaccinated patients in person but denied violating the Hippocratic Oath, report says

• A Florida doctor said she's refusing to treat unvaccinated patients in person, Newsweek reported.
• Dr. Linda Marraccini denied violating the Hippocratic Oath and said she was "following the science."
• Marraccini plans to treat unvaccinated patients through virtual meetings instead.

A doctor in South Miami, Florida, says she plans to largely stop treating unvaccinated patients in person because it is "not fair" on others, Newsweek reported.

Dr. Linda Marraccini said she decided to implement the policy, set to take effect September 15, because she had other patients who were immunocompromised or in chemotherapy and did not want to risk exposing them to the virus in her clinic.

"It's not fair for people who are unvaccinated to harm other people," said Marraccini, who told Newsweek she had seen patients in person throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The doctor insisted she was not violating the set of ethical standards known as the Hippocratic Oath.

"The Hippocratic Oath is very science-based. I am following the science. I'm applying this to the benefit of the sick," she said.

"Responsibility has to do with each individual," Marraccini added. "This is a global health issue, and everyone owns part of that responsibility."

Marraccini said she would still be seeing unvaccinated patients, but only through virtual meetings. She said she would make exceptions for people who could not get vaccinated for health reasons.

"We're not going to leave them out there in the cold," she insisted, according to Newsweek.

Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of COVID-19 of the pandemic, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant in a largely unvaccinated population.

Just over half, or 54%, of Florida's population is fully vaccinated, according to a tracker by The New York Times. More than 46,000 deaths have been reported in the Sunshine State from the virus, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.