A nurse was escorted out of a California hospital over what she called her “sincerely held religious beliefs” not to get the coronavirus vaccine.
The incident reportedly happened Saturday after the unidentified nurse at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in California said she wanted an explanation for having to go on unpaid leave after refusing the vaccine for religious reasons. Her video garnered more than 400,300 views on TikTok since it was posted on Sunday.
“I am being escorted out of Kaiser Permanente hospital for my religious beliefs because I don’t want to get the jab,” she said. “And I asked all day for someone to explain to me why my sincerely held religious beliefs are not good enough for Kaiser, and no one was able to do that for me.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced in August that all healthcare workers would have to be vaccinated by Sept. 30.
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“So now they’re escorting me out because I wanted an answer, and I’m not leaving without an answer,” she continued. “And I have some nurses here who are standing with me in solidarity, and I appreciate that. And I just want all of you to count the cost.”
At least one security guard and at least one other nurse can be seen behind the nurse, who was recording herself.
“I am willing to lose my safety and security, my house, everything, for my freedom, and I want you to think about that,” she added.
“All I want to do is work. Since the beginning, I’ve been a COVID nurse — since the beginning, when we didn’t know what was going on, when we didn’t know what kind of rooms we were walking into,” she said. “But that’s what we do. We’re nurses, and I’ll keep doing that — just somewhere else.”
“It’s not right,” she said to apparently a colleague as they embraced while she walked out.
“It’s not right,” the person replied.
She asked the security guard what he would do if he was “in [her] shoes” and had to “violate” his religious beliefs or lose his job.
“I don’t know how to respond to that,” he said.
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Kaiser Permanente’s media relations team gave the Washington Examiner the following statement after publication:
“We respect our employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs and acknowledge there are a small number of medical conditions which may prevent an individual from getting vaccinated. We are committed to thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewing all requests for religious exemption from our vaccination policy.
“In reviewing exemption requests, we noticed that many employees submitted similar or nearly identical requests containing language taken word-for-word from free and paid templated online forms. These developments made it necessary for us to take another look at our exemption review process and reexamine many religious exemption submissions. We will continue to work with employees who are seeking exemptions for legitimate medical and religious reasons. We hope none of our employees will choose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated.
“In the instance of this employee, she was informed that she needed to speak with Human Resources about her exemption request, not her manager or the facility leadership. This is part of our process, designed to protect our employees’ privacy and confidentiality. All information about exemption requests are treated as confidential personnel information. If our employee in this case had connected with HR, she could have asked questions and been provided information about next steps for addressing the vaccination requirement. We will work with her to address her concerns, and will continue to work with other employees who are seeking exemptions for legitimate medical and religious reasons.
“We are also working with our employees to allay concerns and educate them about the vaccines, their benefits, and risks. We deeply appreciate the extraordinary commitment and dedication of all Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians throughout our response to the pandemic, especially those who have been serving on the front lines to fight this deadly virus.”
