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New York's largest health provider fires 1,400 employees who refuse vaccine

Washington Examiner 10/5/2021 Misty Severi

New York's largest health provider announced Monday it has fired 1,400 employees who refused the COVID-19 vaccine before the state's mandate deadline.

The remaining 76,000 employees have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Northwell Health said in a statement obtained by the New York Times that no patient care has been disrupted, and it is currently hiring to fill the newly vacant positions.

NEW YORK HOSPITALS FACE STAFFING SHORTAGES AS DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR UNVACCINATED WORKERS TO BE FIRED

“Northwell Health is proud to announce that our workforce — the largest in New York State — is 100 percent vaccinated. This allows us to continue to provide exceptional care at all of our facilities, without interruption and remain open and fully operational,” Northwell said in its statement. “Northwell has taken a rapid, aggressive approach to move successfully toward full vaccination compliance while maintaining continuity of care and ensuring that our high standard of patient safety is not compromised in any way. We thank the vast majority of our employees who did the right thing and got vaccinated.”

All employees were required to be vaccinated by Sept. 27 regardless of whether they interacted with patients. It is unclear what jobs the employees who were terminated held.

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The state mandate requiring vaccination was passed in August, under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. His successor, Kathy Hochul, has kept the mandate in place.

Initially, the mandate said it would allow for medical exemptions and not religious ones. However, the statement was taken to court, and a federal judge filed a temporary halt on the order. The judge will rule on whether religious exemptions are protected under the Constitution on Oct. 12.

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