More than 150 Houston hospital workers fired or quit after refusing COVID-19 vaccine

[essentialsaltes]

Out of a staff of 25,000. So, it's less than 1%. But still.

At least 153 employees of a Houston hospital — including nurses and other medical staff — were fired or resigned Tuesday after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the first mass terminations since vaccinations started in the U.S. this year, reinvigorating a national anti-vaccine movement.

The employees were given until midnight Tuesday to get vaccinated, and “very few” resigned or retired early to avoid vaccination, said Gale Smith, a hospital spokeswoman.

“Employees who did not meet the deadline were terminated effective today,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “The employees who became compliant during the suspension period returned to work the day after they became compliant.”

Of the hospital’s staff, 285 were granted medical or religious exemptions from the vaccine and 332 were allowed to defer it, Boom said, but most of the rest were vaccinated by the hospital’s deadline.

A Texas federal judge dismissed the employees’ case against the hospital earlier this month, rejecting their argument that the hospital was forcing them to take an experimental vaccine. (The case is being appealed.)

 

[StromRider]

Now we'll get to hear Republicans whining about a company making and enforcing a vaccine policy.

These would be the same Republicans who normally think companies should be able to treat employees like crap and fire them for any reason whatsoever.

But you have to pander to that base.

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

I admire anyone who has the guts to stand their ground in this world filled with man-pleasers.

 

[pescador]

I admire anyone who has the guts to stand their ground in this world filled with man-pleasers.

I don't understand this reply. If you want people to understand you must elaborate.

The hospital workers deserved to get fired for refusing the vaccine. It is a job requirement, not just for COVID but also for other communicable diseases. No hospital worker has the right to infect other staff or patients.

 

[dzheremi]

I'm glad to see the workers' case was rejected. Nobody is required to retain an employee who refuses to do something that is deemed by their employer to be integral to their job. (See: Kim Davis, et al.)

 

[Elliewaves]

They should be happy; they got what they wanted- to not get a vaccine. Now they can go and pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get a fast food job or retail job that everyone is talking about. Plenty of jobs out there for those that want them that don't require the jab. "Just find something new!"

 

[mama2one]

.

 

[expos4ever]

I admire anyone who has the guts to stand their ground in this world filled with man-pleasers.

I daresay you admire those who agree with you and stand their ground.

Let's test this theory: Do you admire women who "stand their ground" and pursue abortions rather than "pleasing men" who enact laws restricting abortion?

 

[expos4ever]

I don't understand this reply. If you want people to understand you must elaborate.

I suspect you will agree with me, but I will say this anyway. When you are trying to defend a position, and do not have any evidence to offer, you are forced to resort to such vague, emotion-triggering appeals as:

- I admire people who stand their ground.
- I admire people who don't let the government push them around.
- I admire people who defend our right to live as we please.

All these vague statements sound good and are indeed appropriate in some settings. But, of course, when we unpack them in the specific context of covid, they fall apart.

 

[BigDaddy4]

It just seems illogical to me that someone who works that closely to the effects of COVID (death, respirators, hospital capacity issues, overworked nurses, doctors, and support staff, etc.) would refuse a vaccine that would prevent them from potentially being a patient in their own hospital.

 

[BNR32FAN]

Out of a staff of 25,000. So, it's less than 1%. But still.

At least 153 employees of a Houston hospital — including nurses and other medical staff — were fired or resigned Tuesday after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the first mass terminations since vaccinations started in the U.S. this year, reinvigorating a national anti-vaccine movement.

The employees were given until midnight Tuesday to get vaccinated, and “very few” resigned or retired early to avoid vaccination, said Gale Smith, a hospital spokeswoman.

“Employees who did not meet the deadline were terminated effective today,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “The employees who became compliant during the suspension period returned to work the day after they became compliant.”

Of the hospital’s staff, 285 were granted medical or religious exemptions from the vaccine and 332 were allowed to defer it, Boom said, but most of the rest were vaccinated by the hospital’s deadline.

A Texas federal judge dismissed the employees’ case against the hospital earlier this month, rejecting their argument that the hospital was forcing them to take an experimental vaccine. (The case is being appealed.)

I don’t blame them for not trusting it, I don’t trust it either.

 

[sfs]

I don’t blame them for not trusting it, I don’t trust it either.

I don't blame them for not trusting it, nor do I blame the hospital for firing them, since they are in fact a threat to patients.

 

[BigDaddy4]

I don’t blame them for not trusting it, I don’t trust it either.

Do you trust Covid more than the vaccine?

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

I don't understand this reply. If you want people to understand you must elaborate.

Two other people understood it. So far.

No hospital worker has the right to infect other staff or patients.

If these vaccines can turn some into asymptomatic spreaders, how does that work with your plaint?

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

They should be happy; they got what they wanted- to not get a vaccine. Now they can go and pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get a fast food job or retail job that everyone is talking about. Plenty of jobs out there for those that want them that don't require the jab. "Just find something new!"

(Let the reader understand.)

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

I suspect you will agree with me, but I will say this anyway. When you are trying to defend a position, and do not have any evidence to offer, you are forced to resort to such vague, emotion-triggering appeals as:

- I admire people who stand their ground.
- I admire people who don't let the government push them around.
- I admire people who defend our right to live as we please.

All these vague statements sound good and are indeed appropriate in some settings. But, of course, when we unpack them in the specific context of covid, they fall apart.

I love that you milked all that out of my simple sentence.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I don't understand this reply. If you want people to understand you must elaborate.

The hospital workers deserved to get fired for refusing the vaccine. It is a job requirement, not just for COVID but also for other communicable diseases. No hospital worker has the right to infect other staff or patients.

I agree that an employer that has a job requirement has the right to fire an employee that refuses to comply with that requirement. The law does not always agree with that. It depends upon the job requirement. If the job requirement is irrational or intrudes upon one's human rights then the law will not allow for firing and will demand the requirement be dropped. I would say in this case the requirement is not irrational but may intrude to some degree upon the employee's human rights. That intrusion , if it is one, may be seen to be slight enough in comparison to the duties of the job to warrant dismissal for non compliance. To me it is not a clear cut case of one side being right and the other wrong but of two different POVs on a vaccine's effectiveness or danger. If an employer, convinced of the effectiveness of the vaccine were to demand that no employee that has been vaccinated shall wear a mask or face dismissal , there would be vaccinated employees that would not want to comply. I know several people that have been vaccinated that are going around wearing masks. Why they do this makes no sense to me but nonetheless I am not about to demonize them as anti vaxxers despite the fact that by their actions they are telling us that they do not actually believe the vaccines work.

 

[Aldebaran]

Two other people understood it. So far.

Make it three.

 

[Aldebaran]

Now we'll get to hear Republicans whining about a company making and enforcing a vaccine policy.

These would be the same Republicans who normally think companies should be able to treat employees like crap and fire them for any reason whatsoever.

But you have to pander to that base.

I'm surprised we're not hearing from people on the Left complaining that all these health care workers who have been hailed as heroes not too long ago are now being fired from their jobs by a hospital system that obviously sees these workers as disposable.

 

[BNR32FAN]

Do you trust Covid more than the vaccine?

I don’t have COVID or the vaccine