Methodist anti-vaxxers officially fired

I have three things to say about this.

More than 150 Houston Methodist Hospital employees resigned or have been fired as of Tuesday over a recent policy that required hospital employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Monday.

All told, 153 people are no longer employees of the Houston health care chain, Methodist spokesperson Patti Muck said. The hospital has about 25,000 employees, nearly all of whom have abided by the policy, Methodist leaders have said previously.

The firings follow a contentious few weeks in which hospital employees staged protests and filed a lawsuit against the hospital, claiming the policy, announced in April, violated their rights. Methodist was one of the first large health care providers in the country to announce vaccine requirements.

“I’m so happy and relieved,” Jennifer Bridges, the lead plaintiff in the suit, said Tuesday. “I don’t want any part of Methodist.”

Earlier this month, a federal judge tossed the lawsuit filed by more than 100 Methodist employees, most of whom were not doctors or nurses. In it, the plaintiffs argued Methodist’s policy violated the Nuremberg Codes, a World War II-era agreement that bans involuntary participation in medical trials.

Bridges said Tuesday that she and others planned to protest outside Methodist on Saturday, and that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will be in attendance.

See here and here for the background. My three things:

1. I strongly suspect Methodist would say that the feeling is mutual, Jennifer.

2. Inviting Alex Jones to your protest really makes one question the previous statements made about how these folks are not anti-vaccine, just super cautious about this particular vaccine.

3. As Methodist cardiovascular technician Deedee Mattoa says in this story, the real surprise here is not that Methodist followed through, but that Memorial Hermann and Baylor College of Medicine, which have made public promises to require COVID-19 vaccines but have not set deadlines for when staff will need the shots, have not yet followed suit. What are you guys waiting for? The Trib has more.

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6 Responses to Methodist anti-vaxxers officially fired

  1. Jason Hochman says:

    I have 8 things to say about the title, which is Disinformation. The people who don’t want to get the required vaccination may want to wait for the safer Novavax product to be available. There are cases of myocarditis related to the mRNA vaccines.

    The Trump vaccines are not recommended by Joe Biden’s boss, Mrs. Harris. She said so on my TV.

    Anyone who is a Progressive should be following Maxine Waters and standing up to the greed based, wealthy hospital industrial complex and the exorbitant lives of its executives. Anyone who is a Progressive should be standing up to worker exploitation.

    Also, Methodist has closed the Fannin Street sidewalk to do its selfish construction project. This makes you lose a lot of time, and risk your life, making extra crossings of Fannin. Just because they are selfish and don’t care about public health.

    Medical treatment and biomedical research are based on informed consent.

  2. policywonqueria says:

    PRESCRIBING WHAT HOSPITALS SHOULD DO

    Re: Memorial Hermann and Baylor College of Medicine not (or not yet) following Methodist

    Threatening to fire employees unless they get vaccinated, and forcing them to comply by a set dealine, are drastic steps. And to maintain credibility, these institutions would then have to act accordingly, which will entail disruption of operations and costs to refill the affected positions. Additionally, the announcement of a compliance deadline could constrain their future options, and result in mass exodus of employees at one time, rather than spread out so as as to make the transition more manageable.

    Even if they had other reasons to want to reduce staffing levels and could use the vax-requirement as a legitimate reason or excuse/pretext, the forced resignations/firings would not match rationalization goals because they would be driven by individual employee choices to not get vaccinated, rather than by institutional/divisional/functional staffing needs. The institutional vax-mandate would be a blunt and unsuitable tool.

    PERSUASION VS. THE BIG STICK

    Perhaps the two institutions are first trying to obtain as much voluntary cooperation and compliance on the part of their employees as possible, which is always preferable. Having to replace nonredundant employees disrupts ongoing operations and entails recruitment and training costs that would not otherwise be incurred.

    In any event, as long as there is no governmental mandate, these institutions should be free to make policy as they deem best in their own judgment, considering their institution-specific circumstances and general mission. And that exercise of judgment includes timing issues.

    The federal guidelines are here:

    https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws (What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws; Section K addresses Vaccinations)

  3. Jason Hochman says:

    policy,
    one thing about medicine, is that it is an evil corporate machine. Very rare to find a little family doctor practicing in his or her own office as a small business. Even small towns have rural medicine clinics that are offshoots of major hospital corporations.

    In the Pittsburgh area, there is no hospital left that is not affiliated with UPMC in some way. These monopolies rip us all off through the ACA and federal programs and the insurance industrial complex.

    Medical school teaches aspiring doctors to spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes with a patient. Much emphasis on documentation, through software enterprise systems that allow all of the specialists and the billing and the pharmacy to access the patient record for their function.

    Hospitals get doctors to try to sell surgeries and procedures.

    Meanwhile, medical error is usually the third leading cause of death in the US. Covid of course is a blessing to them, now they can test a patient and declare them a Covid death, even if they messed up. Even if the Covid was acquired in their own hospital.

    Medicine has improved the quality of life, and the length of life for everyone. But let’s not get carried away with the hagiography surrounding doctors, and especially the massive greed based corporations.

  4. C.L. says:

    Tin Foil Hat Happy Hour: “Also, Methodist has closed the Fannin Street sidewalk to do its selfish construction project. This makes you lose a lot of time, and risk your life, making extra crossings of Fannin. Just because they are selfish and don’t care about public health.”

    Dr. Hochman, say what you will about Methodist, but to claim they don’t care about public health is down right laughable.

  5. Jason Hochman says:

    Tin foil hat? I would say that this just shows why voter suppression is critical. The people are too gullible.

    Methodist is a big greedy money hungry corporation, that cares about money. There may be individual doctors who care about people. Making people take extra deadly trips across Fannin shows that Methodist is selfish. Period. I doubt that Marc Boom is giving any alms to the myriad impoverished and dying people strewn on the streets of the Med Center. I have seen a woman slumped in a wheelchair in the alley between Methodist and TCH, when you don’t have any more money out ya go.

    I have been in contact with the city to see if they have the proper permit. But the city is incompetent and slow to respond.

    Meanwhile, I have been researching how the fear was accomplished. Important to study this before Trump gets back in and declares another shutdown and another pandemic. The greatest wealth transfer in history is still ongoing.

    The masks are a way to keep the fear forefront in our minds, as is the news, and the constant “case” counts.

    My research has been I will mention to the subject something about snakes. An hour later, I will walk with the subject past a desk where I placed a curved stick, which looks a little like a snake. I expected to run a Tukey or Gaussian, but no need! So far, I have had 100% the same response. The subject jumps up in a startle at having seen a “snake.”

    Also, I am selling vinyl circles, $18.00 each. I was in a Kroger and they had no circles showing where to stand. People in a panic. Now, you can buy a portable circle from me, carry it, and then place it on the floor as you wait in line. You can stand on it, and have your bubble of safety. Two colors available.

  6. Manny says:

    Maskless unvaccinated are primarily the people now dying from covid.

    But they die without a chip injected into their bodies.

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