Chris McKenna|Times Herald-Record
TOWN OF WALLKILL – Both work in Orange County hospitals, have two decades or more of experience and fully understand the dangers of COVID-19 after having cared for waves of infected patients during the height of the pandemic last year.
They also are adamant in refusing the COVID vaccineand ready to lose their jobs rather than comply with a state mandate that all health care workers be vaccinated by Sept. 27.
The two workers – a registered nurseat St. AnthonyCommunity Hospital in Warwick and a non-nursing employee at Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis – discussed their views on Monday at the shopping center in the town of Wallkill where they and other vaccine-shunning health care workers plan to stage a protest against the mandate on Tuesday.
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Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the mandate last week to help contain the latest wave of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious delta variant that is spreading largely among the unvaccinated. With COVID infections and hospitalizations rising in much of the country, New York became at least the 17th state to require some or all of its health care workers to get the COVID vaccine.
"The data and science tell us that getting more people vaccinated as quickly as possible is the best way to keep people safe, prevent further mutations, and enable us to resume our daily routines,"Dr. Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, said then.
About 75% of hospital workers and 68% of nursing home workers in New York were fully vaccinated at that time. But some holdouts remain deeply opposed, even with their jobs on the line.
Route 211 protest planned
Dozens from the Hudson Valley have been communicating on a private Facebook page and have organized a protest in front of the Walmart in Orange Plaza in the town of Wallkill. They plan to line up with signs along the side of Route 211 at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Their invitation encourages police officers, teachers and others to join them, warning, "It's US today and YOU tomorrow."
The two workers interviewed on Monday who plan to attend the rally declined to be quoted by name for fear of retaliation by their employers. They questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine, said that they feared it could harm them and objected on principle to being ordered to take it.
Despite both having jobs that put them in direct physical contact with patients, neither said they were concerned about catching COVID and inadvertently infecting the patients they care for. They bristled that the mandate could force them to leave their jobs at a time when they are needed again on the front lines.
Jill Montag, a Department of Health spokeswoman, said in a statement on Monday that health care workers were among the first groups offered the vaccine after it was developed because protecting "those in the line of duty" was critical.
"Eight months later, a majority of our health care heroes have done the right thing and taken their shots, but we still have trusted health care workers who are not fully vaccinated," she said."It is unacceptable to continue to allow some staff to put patients and themselves at risk. Vaccinations remain the best way for New Yorkers to protect themselves, families and communities from COVID-19 and its most severe outcomes such as hospitalization."
She added that the Food and Drug Administration's full approval of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday showed that "additional clinical trial data continues to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.”More than 170 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
Health care workers who refuse to be vaccinated are expected to challenge the state mandate in court. If that effort fails, the two workers interviewed on Monday said they planned to go work in states with no vaccine mandate – unless the federal government issues a nationwide order.
Why they don't want the shot
The Bon Secours worker said that vaccinated COVID patients outnumbered unvaccinated ones at her hospital, calling into question the effectiveness of the vaccine. Though no data was available to verify that claim, Orange County Health Commissioner Irina Gelman said last week that more than 90% of the 60 COVID patients then in the county's hospitals were unvaccinated.
The St. Anthony nurse said she caught COVID in March 2020, near the beginning of the pandemic, and doesn't need the vaccine because she still has immunity from having had the virus. She said a recent blood test confirmed she has enough antibodies to remain immune.
Both estimated that half or more of their hospital's staffwere unvaccinated, although state Department of Health data indicate that both facilities have reported much higher vaccination rates. As of Aug. 17, 75% of Bon Secours workers and 73% of St. Anthony employees were fully vaccinated, according to the state's figures.
Both hospitals are part of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, which issued its own vaccine mandate for its employees on Aug. 13, three days before the statewide order. All workers – except those deemed exempt for medical or religious reasons – were required to be vaccinated and ready to show proof by Sept. 30.
In a statement on Monday, WMC Health declared that policy "a critical part of our mission and necessary to safeguard the health of our patients, our workforce and their families, as well as the visitors and communities we serve."
cmckenna@th-record.com
