Houston Methodist workers must get a COVID-19 shot by June 7 or risk losing their jobs, making it the first U.S. hospital system to make vaccination mandatory.
Healthy Day reports that on Friday, CEO Marc Bloom emailed employees about the mandated vaccine, writing:
"Mandating the vaccine was not a decision we made lightly, but science has proven that the COVID-19 vaccines are very safe and very effective. Like I say to everyone who asks -- whether they are reporters, the public, patients, or our employees, it is our sacred obligation to do everything possible to keep our patients safe. By choosing to be vaccinated, you are leaders -- showing our colleagues in health care what must be done to protect our patients, ourselves, our families, and our communities."
“…not all Houston Methodist employees are on board with being told they have to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, including Bob Nevens, the hospital chain’s Director of Corporate Risk and Insurance, and Jennifer Bridges, a Houston Methodist nurse in Baytown.
Nevens told the Houston Press he’s on track to be fired at the end of the month because he won’t get vaccinated, while Bridges said she has no plans to take a coronavirus vaccine before the hospital’s June 7 deadline for all employees to have received at least one vaccine shot lest they be fired, and is working to rally support from her coworkers and the public to get Houston Methodist to reverse course. The Human Resources Department at Houston Methodist has said it will consider requests from employees who don’t want to be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons, but neither Nevens nor Bridges are opting out on those grounds.
Instead, they both said their reluctance to get vaccinated stems from how the vaccines have been approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to the pandemic, as opposed to the traditional, lengthier FDA approval process used when the country isn't in the middle of a public health emergency. “We just want more research,” Bridges said, “and we want it to be FDA-approved before we inject it into our bodies, you know, because of course, once you put it in, you can’t take it back out.” Nevens believes that “there’s not enough data for it, and I just didn’t like the idea of being forced to take something that’s not licensed and approved by the FDA.”
The Czar says in response to the mandate by Houston Methodist, “if the vaccine has to save us because otherwise we’re all going to die, then why are you allowing people a (religious) exemption.”