{"id":122276,"date":"2021-10-03T11:30:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T11:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=122276"},"modified":"2021-10-03T11:30:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T11:30:34","slug":"a-few-skeptical-u-s-hospital-workers-choose-dismissal-over-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/a-few-skeptical-u-s-hospital-workers-choose-dismissal-over-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"A few skeptical U.S. hospital workers choose dismissal over vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jennifer Bridges loved her job as a nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital, where she worked for eight years, but she chose to get fired rather than inoculated against COVID-19, believing that the vaccine was more of a threat than the deadly virus.<\/p>

Jennifer Bridges, 39, an RN who was fired from her job after refusing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, poses for a portrait at Jenkins Park in Baytown, Texas, U.S., September 30, 2021. Picture taken September 30, 2021. REUTERS\/Callaghan O’Hare<\/figcaption>

Bridges was among about 150 employees who were fired or resigned rather than comply with the requirement at Methodist, which was the country\u2019s first large health system to mandate vaccinations. About 25,000 other employees at the hospital system complied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never felt so strong about anything,\u201d said Bridges, 39, who lives in Houston. She was terminated from her $70,000 per year post on June 21, the deadline for employees to get a jab. \u201cI did not feel there was proper research in this shot. It had been developed very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston Methodist is one of a growing number of private employers that have made vaccinations a requirement of the job. New York and California are among the states that have required vaccinations for healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

Mandates have proven to be effective in boosting vaccination rates in healthcare. In New York, for example, Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday said 92% of the state\u2019s more than 625,000 healthcare workers were inoculated, up from 73% on Aug. 16 when former Governor Andrew Cuomo laid down a Sept. 27 deadline for vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Then-Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the mandate would \u201chelp close the vaccination gap\u201d and reduce the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.<\/p>\n

Even so, there are pockets of resistance in the healthcare field. Those interviewed by Reuters said they had been immunized for other diseases, but said a lack of long-term data on the three COVID vaccines available in the United States was reason enough for them to step into an uncertain future after years of job security.<\/p>\n

Speaking in support of the vaccines available in the United States, medical experts have said they had received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in less than a year, instead of the usual several years, due to factors including ample funding and test subjects, piggybacking off earlier research, and international collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u2018SLAP IN MY FACE\u2019<\/p>\n

Many of the workers who walked away had enough financial wherewithal to allow them to stick to their convictions.<\/p>\n

For Bridges, the high demand for nurses meant she could refuse the shot without sacrificing financial security. On the same day she was fired by Methodist, she started training for her next job at a private nursing company that has no vaccine mandate.<\/p>

Slideshow ( 3 images )<\/span><\/figcaption>

Nurse Katie Yarber also found a job after leaving Houston Methodist but only after going 12 weeks without a paycheck and depleting \u201ca big chunk\u201d of her savings. Still, she said she does not regret her decision to depart after 14 years of service.<\/p>\n

Yarber, 35, said she would not get the vaccine because of her religious convictions, a stance that the hospital rejected. She is also wary of possible long-term side effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of felt like it was a slap in my face,\u201d said Yarber, who began working at the hospital as a medical records clerk before earning a nursing degree. \u201cI went to work, I did my job, I did it with a smile. I was a really good employee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yarber, who said she has already had COVID, is now a work-from-home nurse case manager. She had a brief stint at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital but that ended when it too required vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Euart is one of about 175 workers dismissed last Monday after refusing vaccinations at Novant Health, a North Carolina hospital network. She is now considering a new career.<\/p>\n

With 24 years as a patient services coordinator, Euart, 56, had planned to retire from Novant, but is now exploring opening a dessert restaurant and sweet shop.<\/p>\n

After battling cancer since 2008, she felt the risk of a vaccine was greater than COVID, which four of her family members have had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed the job, but I didn\u2019t think that my job was worth my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A Novant spokeswoman said on Tuesday that 99% of its more than 35,000 employees have been vaccinated against coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Nationally, more than 77% of adults have received at least one vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The country\u2019s COVID death toll has surpassed 700,000, according to a Reuters tally.<\/p>\n

In upstate New York, Andrew Kurtyko said he is ready to be fired from his $90,000 nursing job at Mount St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Lewiston for refusing the shot. He knows he could earn more by working as a \u201ctravel nurse,\u201d taking temporary jobs around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly with my years of experience, I\u2019m pretty marketable,\u201d said Kurtyko, 47, a divorced father of a college student who has a mortgage to pay.<\/p>\n

Like some other medical workers, Kurtyko questions the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. He is also seeking a religious exemption from the Catholic Hospital. If he is denied, he expects to lose his job on Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

Bob Nevens, 47, Houston Methodist\u2019s top risk manager for 10 years, also prefers to take his chances with COVID over a vaccine. As a consequence, he became one of the country\u2019s first workplace mandate casualties in April.<\/p>\n

Besides a lack of long-term data, Nevens said he refused Methodist\u2019s mandate because it did not acknowledge \u201cnatural immunity\u201d for those who had already contracted COVID and because vaccine manufacturers are shielded from liability.<\/p>\n

He said he was not worried about money.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially, I\u2019m fine,\u201d he said. \u201cMentally, it\u2019s exhausting, because I didn\u2019t want to make that decision. I had planned on retiring from Houston Methodist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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