Corporate America has decided that members of the group they have been cheering as “front line heroes” for the past year only matter if they do exactly what they’re told.
A Houston, Texas hospital has decided that employees who don’t get vaccinated should be kicked to the curb. More than 170 healthcare workers at Houston Methodist Hospital have been suspended without pay for two weeks for choosing not to get the COVID vaccine by the hospital’s June 7 deadline for its workers.
These front line workers will be fired at the end of the two week suspension if they don’t get vaccinated.
According to the hospital’s President and CEO Marc Boom, 99% of the hospital’s more than 25,000 workers had gotten the vaccination by the deadline.
“It is unfortunate that today’s milestone of Houston Methodist becoming the safest hospital system in the country is being overshadowed by a few disgruntled employees,” Boom said in a statement.
Boom announced the suspensions in an internal memo which was obtained by The Washington Post.
“I know that today may be difficult for some who are sad about losing a colleague who’s decided to not get vaccinated,” the CEO wrote in the memo. “We only wish them well and thank them for their past service to our community, and we must respect the decision they made.”
After being notified of their suspensions, dozens of workers gathered to protest outside of the hospital.
“They can’t control us out here,” nurse Jennifer Bridges, a leader of the front line workers choosing not to be vaccinated, told the Houston Press during the protest. “I’m tired of being controlled and I’m tired of people trying to tell me what to do.”
“I wouldn’t risk losing my job for not getting the flu shot, but this one is different,” Pierre Charland, a nurse, told the newspaper.
For the past year, corporate America has joined the left in declaring front line workers, especially hospital employees, as heroes. Yet, now they are throwing them under the bus for refusing to take a vaccine that many believe has not been studied enough. Despite the left’s demonization of people who refuse to get vaccinated, some people are still willing to stand up for these front line workers, as a large crowd has joined the hospital employees’ protest.
“Just to think that these girls and all of these health care workers have worked through a pandemic, and now you are going to fire them because they just want to wait and see what this vaccine does, I think that’s wrong,” former employee Betsy Larson said.
Fox News reports: “The hospital gave exemptions to 285 employees for religious and medical reasons and 332 received deferrals, including for pregnancy… At least 117 employees filed a lawsuit against the hospital last month, claiming the employer can’t force employees to get the ‘experimental’ vaccine.”
Boom is using a Texas law which has allowed hospitals to mandate the flu for the last 11 years as justification for his COVID vaccine mandate, stating that the coronavirus vaccines “have proven through rigorous trials to be very safe and very effective and are not experimental.”
According to The White House, at least 63% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
