153 people resigned or were fired from a Texas hospital system after refusing to get vaccinated

[BumRushDaShow]

33. Because unfortunately this is not a unique case

I had posted in another thread about the problems going on here in PA too - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2759338

Mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers can mean hard realities for employers

Philadelphia pediatrician Eric Berger enforced mandatory shots in May after an after-hours karaoke party caused a small outbreak among staff. Six of his 47 staff members walked out.

by Christine Spolar, Kaiser Health News
Published Jun 21, 2021

Christopher Richmond keeps a running tab on how many workers at the ManorCare skilled nursing facility he manages in western Pennsylvania have rolled up their sleeves for a COVID-19 vaccine. Although residents were eager for the shots this year, he’s counted only about 3 in 4 workers vaccinated at any one time. The excuses, among its staff of roughly 100, had a familiar ring: Because COVID-19 vaccines were authorized only for emergency use, some staffers worried about safety. Convenience mattered. In winter, shots were administered at work through a federal rollout. By spring, though, workers had to sign up online through a state program — a time-sucking task.

ManorCare urges every worker to be immunized against COVID-19 but turnover has vexed that effort. Managers at ProMedica, a nonprofit health system that operates ManorCare and senior care facilities in 26 states, faced a workforce conundrum familiar to all manner of providers during the pandemic: how to persuade essential workers to get vaccinated — and in a way that didn’t drive them away. Raises and bonuses, costing millions of dollars, did not move the needle to 100%. Animus toward the vaccine created turmoil for some providers.

Dr. Eric Berger, a pediatrician in Philadelphia who opened his practice more than a dozen years ago, enforced mandatory shots in May and saw six of his 47 staff members walk out. Berger said he worked for months to educate resistant workers. In April, he learned that several, women in their 20s and 30s, had attended a private karaoke party. Within days, four staffers were infected with COVID-19. Berger, who had seen in-office costs for protective equipment soar, then set a deadline for shots. He looks back with steely resolve over the last-minute “I quit” texts he received — and the hassle of finding a new receptionist and billing and medical assistants.

(snip)

Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department issued a temporary emergency standard for health care workers, saying they face “grave danger” in the workplace when “less than 100 percent of the workforce is fully vaccinated.” In Pennsylvania, whose population ranks among the oldest according to 2019 census data, statistical snapshots published in April underscored the need for vigilance. Two state agencies overseeing skilled nursing care and personal care homes reported that only half of their workers were vaccinated. COVID-19 was notably devastating to long-term care facilities nationwide in 2020; some of Pennsylvania’s deadliest outbreaks were reported by local media in places shown later to have low staff vaccination rates. The questions and qualms about vaccines came at the end of a deeply distressing pandemic year for health care workers, and facilities are now finding fewer applicants for essential care.

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-mandates-health-care-workers-20210621.html

I also added this -

We also have many police and firefighters, let alone current military who are refusing it. There has been much focus on minority group "hesitancy" and little on the very people who are or can be continually exposed to the virus and are in position to spread it to the most vulnerable.

So knowing that when COVID-19 first came blazing in, it ravaged health facilities (notably long-term care types), the issue now focuses on designated "first responders" and "front line workers" whose very work exposes them to possible infection, day in and day out. With the proper PPE AND a vaccine, they can be even better assured of not contracting the more infectious variants that are starting to predominate, from anyone being treated who might be shedding large amounts of virus.