COVID-19 vaccine mandate leads to worker terminations and resignations

More than 150 employees of the Houston hospital system were fired or resigned after the medical system implemented a mandate requiring a COVID-19 vaccine and a judge dismissed an employee lawsuit over it. The hospital system had previously required staff to complete their immunizations by June 7. 178 employees were suspended for two weeks without pay for non-compliance. After the suspension period expired on Tuesday, 153 employees resigned or were terminated for not completing their vaccinations. A federal judge dismissed last week’s lawsuit brought by 117 employees over the requirement, a Houston Methodist Hospital System spokesperson told The Associated Press. They have appealed the case. Hospital workers across the country have risked their lives during the pandemic, and many have died from the virus, but a recent survey by USA TODAY of some of the nation’s largest networks of hospitals and public hospitals revealed that vaccination rates for hospital workers vary widely. Pandemic: Houston hospital paves way for employers to order COVID-19 vaccines Latest COVID-19 updates: Biden administration admits it won’t reach July 4 vaccination goal, said Ogbonnaya Omenka, a Houston Methodist professor and public health specialist at Butler University in Indianapolis. Mandates that may seem like an obvious choice to many people should be “implemented in a humanitarian context,” he told USA TODAY earlier this month. US News & World Report ranked Houston Methodist as the best hospital in Texas and was listed by Newsweek as the 18th best hospital in the country. 85% of employees had been vaccinated by April. In recent days after the lawsuit was dismissed, other prominent hospitals have followed the lead of Houston Methodist with vaccine mandates: Indiana Health University, Johns Hopkins, New York Presbyterian, University of Pennsylvania, and most hospitals in the Washington, D.C. area said they would establish. The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will not reach its “ambitious” goal of getting at least 70% of American adults to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4th, despite 16 states and the District of Columbia. It hit the target, as a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed vaccination rates were lower among men, young adults, those living in rural counties, and those with higher social vulnerabilities across all age groups. More than 45% of Americans are fully vaccinated. Contributing: John Bacon, USA Today; Associated Press