They Said They Would Fire You If You Didn't Get Vaccinated... US Hospital Withdraws Vaccination Mandate Due to Staff Shortage

Thousands of Nurses Leave Jobs Instead of Vaccination in the US... About 30% Unvaccinated Workforce

Adolescents are receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. [Source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Seohyun] Some hospitals in the United States are abandoning COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees due to labor shortages.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 13th (local time), after a federal court temporarily halted the Biden administration's decision to mandate vaccines for healthcare workers, some hospitals in the U.S. have removed vaccine mandates for their staff.

Hospitals that have suspended vaccine mandates include HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, the nonprofit AdventHealth, and the Cleveland Clinic. Among them, HCA Healthcare, which has a total of 275,000 employees, initially required all staff to complete vaccination by the federal government's deadline of January 4. However, following the federal court ruling, it temporarily suspended the vaccine mandate.

Harlo Summerfold, a spokesperson for HCA, said, "A majority of our 275,000 employees have completed their second vaccine dose," adding, "We still encourage our colleagues to get vaccinated."

WSJ reported that labor costs in the healthcare industry have risen, and hospitals have struggled to secure enough nurses, technicians, and administrators to handle the influx of patients during the recent months of rapid spread of the Delta variant.

A hospital staff member in Miami, USA, receiving a vaccine shot
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Recently, thousands of nurses have left their jobs instead of choosing to get vaccinated. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of September, about 30% of employees at more than 2,000 hospitals nationwide were unvaccinated.

Of course, some hospitals still maintain vaccine mandates. Kaiser Permanente, which operates 39 hospitals across the U.S. and employs about 210,000 people, mandated vaccination for employees by January 1 and reported that it had fired 352 employees who did not comply. Approximately 1,500 employees who have not yet been vaccinated must receive the vaccine or obtain an exemption for specific reasons by early January next year to keep their jobs.

Additionally, Northwell Health, which has about 77,000 employees, told WSJ in October that it had fired about 1,400 employees who did not comply with the vaccine mandate. Northwell Health plans not to employ unvaccinated individuals going forward.