Listen to this article

On Monday midnight, New York’s state mandate ordering health care workers to get the COVID vaccine went into effect. Some hospital networks including Northwell Health have already fired at least 2 dozen health care workers. Others will have 30 days to get a COVID vaccine or lose their jobs. Officials said 16% of the state’s hospital workers, or some 83,000 people are not fully vaccinated. At least 8% haven’t gotten a single dose, putting them at risk of termination. The president and CEO at New York-Presbyterian Hospitals (one of the largest systems in the country), Steven Corwin said he believes a mandate is needed to get everyone fully vaccinated. More than 30% of the staff was unvaccinated before its own vaccination deadline last week.

But less than 1% refused the shot and resigned after the deadline. Corwin said, “So out of 48,000 employees and affiliated physicians, we have less than 220 that have not chosen to get the vaccine”. About 5% of the staff, roughly 400 people unvaccinated and on leave at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo. The president and CEO of Erie County Medical Center, Tom Quatroche said, “We stopped elective inpatient surgeries. We stopped some of our outpatient patient visits. We stopped ICU medical transfers from other referral rural hospitals. We’ve asked for more time to work on strategies with the state to ensure that as many people as possible get vaccinated”. On Monday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans at a press conference, to send National Guard troops to short-staffed hospitals like ECMC.

However, some health care workers are suing the state over the mandate, including nurse Deborah Conrad. She said, “I’m wearing the same exact PPE I’ve worn the whole pandemic and it’s always kept myself and patients safe. Why has that changed?” The Western New York nurse said she still feels uncomfortable taking the shot despite medical data that has been released that the vaccines offer strong protection against severe illness. Conrad also said, “A career that I’ve loved for almost 20 years, I am prepared”. The vaccination mandate for teachers in New York City is expected to take effect later this week. The teachers’ union has indicated that 97% of its members are vaccinated and the city says roughly 7,000 education workers were vaccinated over the weekend.