More than 150 employees of a Houston hospital system resigned or were fired after dozens of workers refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
On April 1, Houston Methodist became one of the first hospital systems in the country to announce a vaccine mandate for its employees. By June 7, 24,947 employees had complied with the mandate, Gale Smith, a spokesperson for the organization, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. The 178 people who hadn’t received the vaccine were suspended for two weeks.
Twenty-five of those employees got vaccinated during the suspension period and returned to work. The 153 others either resigned or were terminated on Tuesday.
Houston Methodist’s fight to get its employees vaccinated has become the subject of national attention. One of the employees with an objection to the rule, Jennifer Bridges, was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by several employees to avoid taking the vaccine. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge on June 12.
“This is not coercion,” U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes wrote. “Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus. It is a choice made to keep staff, patients, and their families safer.”
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“Patients are always first, and that’s what it’s always been,” Smith told the Washington Post.
Over 53% of the United States has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with over 45% fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
