Northwell Health, New York’s (NY) largest health care provider, announced they have fired 1,400 workers due to the state’s vaccine mandate.
Northwell Health has over 76,000 employees and is actively filling the positions left vacant by employees who for various reasons declined to comply with the state’s mandate.
“Northwell believes that having a fully vaccinated workforce is an important measure in our duty to protect the health and safety of our staff, our patients, and the communities we serve,” a company statement reads.
But officials with the health care provider said the goal was “to comply with the New York state mandate and to get people vaccinated, not to get people terminated.”
Still, they didn’t seem all that sympathetic to those who just lost their jobs saying they are “proud to announce” that by firing the unvaccinated workers, “our workforce … is 100 percent vaccinated.”
Health care workers who are terminated due to refusal to comply with the vaccine mandate are not eligible for unemployment insurance in New York state unless they provide a doctor-approved request for medical accommodation.
Northwell Health fires 1,400 workers due to vaccine mandate, remaining 76K got shots https://t.co/stOOsTmk1V
— lohud.com (@lohud) October 5, 2021
RELATED: NY Could Call In National Guard If Thousands Of Unvaccinated Health Care Workers Are Fired
NY Vaccine Mandate Leaves Hundreds Unemployed
At around the same time they were bragging about their staff being fully vaccinated by firing hundreds of people, Northwell Health was also posting about how inclusive their organization is.
In a job announcement on their company site as well as the job information site LinkedIn, Northwell bragged about creating a welcoming environment for all.
“Northwell Health is focused on creating a welcoming environment where all employees have a sense of belonging,” they write.
Everybody is welcome, everybody belongs – just not people who have natural immunity from the virus or have other medical or personal concerns about being forced to vaccinate.
The company statement goes on to thank “the vast majority of our employees who did the right thing and got vaccinated.”
Healthcare workers burn their scrubs outside Northwell Staten Island University Hospital in an act of protest against the state mandating Covid vaccines on them without exceptions even for those who have recovered. Video by @ScooterCasterNY: pic.twitter.com/jaHtQZJ1YN
— Andy Ngô ?️? (@MrAndyNgo) October 2, 2021
Hochul Has Created a Health Emergency
Democrat New York Governor Kathy Hochul began her tenure with a state emergency of her own doing.
Her vaccine mandate created a medical crisis in the throes of a pandemic that could lead to tens of thousands of health care workers being fired in NY state.
Time magazine writes:
“Even health care leaders who support vaccination and vaccine mandates say that the requirement exacerbated the New York health care sector’s pre-existing condition: staffing shortages, which existed before the pandemic but have become a full-blown crisis amid the outbreak.”
Pretty impressive for an unelected governor who only ascended to the position because the previous guy was so incompetent that he single-handedly sent thousands of seniors to their death at the beginning of the pandemic.
Tens of thousands of health care workers across New York state could lose their jobs as soon as today, the state-imposed deadline for them to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. https://t.co/Cd13ENayPy
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 27, 2021
In addition to the 1,400 workers fired by Northwell, hundreds of health care workers at Albany Medical Center have already been suspended and will lose their jobs as well if they do not comply with the NY vaccine mandate this week.
The prospect of a shortage of health professionals is so dire in New York that Hochul entertained enlisting the National Guard, foreign workers, or out-of-state medical workers to fill the void.
It is a crisis of her own creation, a stunning ‘own goal’ one wouldn’t have expected to see on a Saturday Night Live skit, let alone by the leader of the Empire State.
Hochul responded to the crisis with all the cuddly warmth of a viper, suggesting the unvaccinated nurses or medical workers weren’t adhering to their oath and that “we will be replacing people.”
Governors are “replaceable” too : NY governor refusing to budge on vaccine mandate for nurses: You’re replaceable https://t.co/ed1KxDBdNj
— Phil Holloway ? (@PhilHollowayEsq) September 25, 2021
This lies in stark contrast to just last year when she was celebrating nurses.
“You define New York Tough and are heroes on the frontlines,” she said. “We thank you.”
From ‘heroes on the frontlines’ to ‘replaceable breakers of the oath’ in just one year. Remarkable.
They were heroes a year ago. https://t.co/rKMwMDWKDL
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) September 27, 2021
While the vaccine mandate is meant to show Hochul is super-serious about getting the pandemic under control, the fact that she exacerbated a medical crisis through her own ignorance proved otherwise.
Her next move further proved she shouldn’t be taken seriously on any level.
Hochul invoked God, struck a Jesus Christ pose, and urged her “apostles” to go out and get people vaccinated.
She even wore her rosary beads, er … Her ‘vaxed’ necklace whilst preaching.
Thousands of NY’s healthcare workers are being fired due to Hochul’s vaccine mandate. Intoxicated with power, she thinks so highly of herself & her new position Hochul says she’s our new intermediary to the highest religious powers in the universe & declared NYers her Apostles. pic.twitter.com/SwnonfUOtt
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) September 29, 2021
“God did answer our prayers,” Hochul said at a Brooklyn megachurch last Sunday. “He made the smartest men and women — the scientists, the doctors, the researchers — he made them come up with a vaccine!”
She added that “we must say, ‘Thank you, God! Thank you!'”
Speaking in a tone you’d expect to encounter at a daycare, Hochul then suggested people not getting the vaccine are unintelligent.
“All of you — yes, I know you’re vaccinated, you’re the smart ones — but you know there’s people out there who aren’t listening to God and what God wants. … You know who they are,” she told the church.
“I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, ‘We owe this to each other! We love each other!'”
Love each other – except those stupid unvaccinated people.
Love each other – except those nurses who don’t adhere to their so-called oath.
It’s not that New Yorkers who want to make their own decisions on the vaccine are ignorant, it’s that the people in power truly are.
Hochul is Exhibit A.
What the governor is failing to take into account is the myriad of people that have already been infected with COVID-19 who now have natural immunity.
Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, writes in The Washington Post that “more than 15 studies have demonstrated the power of immunity acquired by previously having the virus.”
Hochul still wants those people to be forced to get the jab or lose their jobs. That’s ignorant.
Getting the vaccine on top of natural immunity for added antibody protection? Why stop there? What’s to say these health care workers shouldn’t also be forced to get a booster? Or two boosters? Why not a booster every Tuesday and Friday? Where will the line be drawn?
Hochul is also ignoring those with legitimate medical concerns that they personally believe could be amplified by the vaccine.
That’s ignorant.
And she’s unfairly targeting the black and Latino community with the vaccine mandate. As of mid-August, the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates roughly 40% of Black people and 45% of Latinos had been at least partially vaccinated compared to 50% of white people
Hochul’s vaccine mandate will disproportionately affect the minority community to a greater extent. That’s ignorant.
NY’s vaccine mandate has everything to do with power and nothing to do with science or empathy for fellow citizens.
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