The intended effect of Covid-19 vaccination mandates is to drive up the vaccination rate and encourage more people to take the jab. The unintended consequence, as would be expected, has been a continued number of employees who decide to quit their job rather than be forced into receiving a vaccination they don’t want.
From police officers to nurses, to firefighters and other personnel, both in the public and private sector, the number of employees leaving their jobs in many cases is drastically overwhelming employers’ ability to replace them.
In Massachusetts, where a vaccine mandate for state employees is set to take effect on October 17, a record number of state troopers have decided to hang up their badge in protest:
The State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM) said dozens of troopers have submitted their resignation papers as a result of the state’s COVID vaccine mandate.
The state is requiring all executive department employees to show proof of vaccination by October 17, or risk losing their jobs.
Last week, a judge denied a request from the State Police union to put a hold on Baker’s vaccine mandate for troopers.
In response, the union representing the officers released a statement outlining the grave situation now presented to the already short-staffed Massachusets State Police:
To date, dozens of troopers have already submitted their resignation paperwork, some of whom plan to return to other departments offering reasonable alternatives such as mask wearing and regular testing. The State Police are already critically short staffed and acknowledged this by the unprecedented moves which took troopers from specialty units that investigate homicides, terrorism, computer crimes, arsons, gangs, narcotics, and human trafficking, and returned them to uniformed patrol.
It’s not just law enforcement, though many state and local departments are feeling the pinch, it’s also deep into healthcare where workers find themselves being fired or threatened with termination if they don’t agree to vaccination.
Some states, like New York, are making plans to use the National Guard as replacements in anticipation of worker shortages due to vaccine mandates:
New York state officials are bracing for staffing shortages when the state’s health care worker vaccination mandate takes effect on Monday, and could be looking to the National Guard — as well as medical professionals from other states and countries — to help address them.
Gov. Kathy Hochul released a plan on Saturday, outlining the steps she could take to increase the workforce in the event that large numbers of hospital and nursing home employees do not meet the state’s deadline.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, the replacement for disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had harsh words for healthcare workers refusing the jab calling them “replaceable.”
Similar scenes are playing out in other states, like North Carolina, where dozens of workers are threatening to quit if there will be no accommodations made for refusing the Covid-19 vaccination:
Sixty UNC Health employees have resigned rather than get vaccinated against coronavirus, health system officials said Tuesday.
System officials had given some 30,000 workers until Tuesday to get their shots or face termination, but on Monday, they pushed that deadline back to Nov. 2.
More than 1,000 unvaccinated employees are now on probation and have six weeks to get their shots.
UNC Health’s hospitals are already stretched thin in terms of staffing during the pandemic, Ewend said, but officials are planning for the possibility of more vacancies after the Nov. 2 deadline.
As noted, with hospitals stretched thin as it is, dozens of employees doesn’t necessarily sound like a lot, but it can mean a difference in some services being paused or discontinued due to low staffing.
At least one hospital in upstate New York was forced to pause maternity care and deliveries due to a staffing shortage caused by workers quitting over vaccine mandates:
An upstate New York hospital said it will pause the delivery of babies in two weeks because of a spate of resignations by maternity unit workers who are objecting to COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
Lewis County General Hospital, in Lowville, will temporarily stop delivering babies after Sept. 24, WWNY reported. During a news conference Friday afternoon, Lewis County Health System CEO Gerald Cayer said seven of the 30 hospital workers who resigned were from the hospital’s maternity ward. He added that another seven maternity unit staffers were undecided about getting the vaccine, the television station reported.
Pausing deliveries at one hospital means other hospitals, usually further away from patients, will be stressed to fill the void and expectant mothers will be underserved.
Another story out of Indiana also finds a similar scene to North Carolina and New York with healthcare workers quitting to avoid mandatory vaccination:
Some employees at Indiana University (IU) Health quit their jobs over the COVID vaccine mandate as cases continue to surge amid the highly transmissible Delta variant.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the nonprofit health care organization told Newsweek that 125 employees resigned from their jobs after refusing to take the COVID vaccine. There are 35,800 employees working for the hospital system.
A recent nationwide survey found that a large majority of unvaccinated workers say they would rather quit their job than be forced into compliance:
A Washington Post-ABC News poll asked unvaccinated workers whose employers have yet to impose a vaccine mandate what they were likely to do if getting vaccinated was required to go into the workplace.
The poll found 16 percent of unvaccinated workers would get the shot, 35 percent would ask for a medical or religious exemption and 42 percent would quit their job.
When asked what they would do if they weren’t given an exemption to opt out of the requirement, 18 percent of those surveyed said they would comply and 72 percent said they would quit.
With healthcare workers, and police officers, in short supply, the ripple effect will be felt for months and years to come. As police departments struggle to recruit and fill positions in an environment that has become hostile to law enforcement, resignations due to forced vaccinations are making the situation exponentially worse.
In most cases, unvaccinated workers are simply asking for accommodations of testing or universal mask-wearing to continue in their current employment. In some cases, those exceptions are being allowed, but in others, some employees are deciding to walk rather than take the shot.
As President Biden continues his war on unvaccinated Americans, the consequences are being born out in front of us as private businesses and local governments struggle to maintain a quality level of service. The issue will only intensify in the coming months as more and more mandates go into effect in October and November. Some mandates, originally set to be enforced in September, keep getting pushed back due to fears of mass employee resignations.
