A nurse was escorted out of a Kaiser Permanente hospital for her decision not to be vaccinated. She said she was seeking a religious exemp...
A nurse was escorted out of a Kaiser Permanente hospital for her decision not to be vaccinated.
She said she was seeking a religious exemption from the vaccine mandate — she was not allowed one and was not given an explanation as to why.
She said she is willing to lose her “safety and security, my house, everything, for my freedom.”
She also added that she has been a COVID nurse from the beginning of the pandemic and that all she wants to do is work.
She is not the only employee at Kaiser Permanente who will face repercussions for refusing the vaccine.
Over 2,200 employees were put on “unpaid administrative leave” for not responding to the vaccine requirement.
In one of the first signs of an escalating showdown between healthcare providers and vaccine-resistant employees, Kaiser Permanente has suspended more than 2,000 workers who have chosen not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The Oakland-based health care provider is not alone in putting workers who are shunning the vaccine on leave without pay. Across California, hospitals have told workers who have refused a shot to stop showing up to work in recent days. Suspended workers can’t return unless they get jabbed in the coming weeks.
The crackdown throughout California comes as a state health order said workers at hospitals, dialysis clinics, surgery centers and other health care settings needed to have received either one Johnson & Johnson shot or two Pfizer or Moderna shots by the end of September. The order allowed for limited religious and medical exemptions.
“More than 92 percent of our employees have been vaccinated — and the number continues to grow,” Kaiser said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “As of October 4, just over 2,200 have not responded to our vaccine requirement, and have been put on unpaid administrative leave across the country.”
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