June 9, 2021

Houston Methodist, a Houston Texas hospital, suspended 178 health-care workers for failing to comply with a strict vaccine mandate. The CEO of the hospital system confirmed the suspensions to the Washington Post on Tuesday. Almost 30,000 employees have been fully vaccinated by Monday's deadline. 178 opted to skip the shot in hopes that the hospital would not follow through on its threat to suspend non-compliant staff.

Unfortunately for those 178, the hospital called their bluff. Now they are all suspended for two weeks, without pay.

The CEO, Marc Boom, put out a statement:

“Of these employees, 27 have received one dose of vaccine, so I am hopeful they will get their second doses soon. I know that today may be difficult for some who are sad about losing a colleague who’s decided to not get vaccinated. We only wish them well and thank them for their past service to our community, and we must respect the decision they made.”

285 employees were able to receive a medical or religious exemption from the vaccine and an additional 332 employees were able to defer vaccination due to preganancy or other specific reasons. They were not suspended.

In March Boom put out a public statement stating that all staff members needed to get vaccinated to "set an example and protect patients." Obviously, there were threats of lawsuits. That did not deter Boom.

Twitter was supportive:

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon