Health care workers who cannot take a COVID-19 vaccine due to medical, religious, or ethical objections are being fired from hospitals that mandated the shots for their staff members.
‘No Long-term Safety Data’
Dr. Thomas Redwood was terminated by Piedmont and Wellstar for not taking the vaccine.“The decision to take the emergency use authorization vaccines currently offered should be a personal choice based on a careful risk-benefit analysis of receiving the vaccine compared to the risks of the disease for which the vaccine is intended to provide protection,” Redwood told The Epoch Times.
He believes that “based on current epidemiological data ... should I become infected with COVID, I have a 98–99 percent probability of survival. On the other side of the ledger, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, has logged over 18,000 deaths and over 800,000 adverse events ... In addition, we have no long-term safety data similar to what has been required of other vaccines before approval for widespread use, much less the creation of a vaccine mandate. In addition to safety concerns, vaccine efficacy has been shown to drop below 50 percent after four to six months from having received the vaccine.
Exemption Requests Denied
Dr. Eric Saunders, a veteran physician, was recently fired from Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey.“My religious and medical exemptions were denied by them,” Saunders said.
“I was born without legs due to a pharmaceutical my mother took while pregnant with me. Both of my parents were ministers. My deep faith in God has helped me overcome many hurdles in my life, but the psychological trauma of being injured by a pharmaceutical, and knowing the potential controversy behind the science of the COVID vaccines, I am not able to receive them.
“I am fighting and speaking out against these mandates, using my story to hopefully bring awareness, so they can be reversed and let freedom be restored to humanity so we can coexist in peace and love again,” he said.
Nicole Fanelli has been working for Crozer Health in Pennsylvania for almost 21 years as a mammography technologist.
“I submitted for Religious Exemption (Catholic) and was denied. I did appeal the denial but they used the same panel of people to review the appeals who did the initial review.
“The reason I feel discriminated against is because they gave me a blanket statement for my denial: basically said my religion as a whole is not against vaccination. I had explained my sincerely held beliefs to them in writing, as well as supplied a supporting letter from my priest that Crozer Health requested,” Fanelli said.
She was placed on two weeks unpaid leave in mid-October, and by the end of the month, she was fired and not eligible for unemployment.
‘My Faith Is Fierce’
Nicole Thibodeau had been working as a registered nurse case manager for Beth Israel Lahey Health, the second-largest health care organization in Massachusetts. She said her employer was sending out denials to “hundreds” of staff in response to their religious exemption petitions.“My faith is fierce and I will never get this shot. They have been terrible to us; harassment, delays, extensions, lack of communication, etc. Last I heard, there was 4 percent of the company unvaxxed. That’s 1,440 people. They are putting pressure on us to get it or else ‘voluntarily’ resign,” Thibodeau said.
Trudiann Edmondson from New York worked for Northwell Health as a remote patient care coordinator. She was fired on Oct. 1 for declining the jab.
“At the time of my termination, I was approx. 5 months pregnant and asked for a temporary declination due to being high risk for multiple reasons, the limited data on pregnant women, and having the capability of working from home 100 percent.
“I was diagnosed with a blood clot very early in the pregnancy that has since dissolved. I am on low dose aspirin, which I have to take daily. I was given no alternative options, and myself and over a thousand others were let go based on the company wanting a 100 percent shot compliance rate.”
‘Unconstitutional Laws Are not Laws’
Allen Thompson was terminated from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina after eight years with them due to his decision not to get vaccinated, even though he had been showing proof of a negative COVID-19 test weekly.Thompson was terminated on Aug. 20. His employer emailed staff about the new mandates on Aug. 16 and stated that the new mandates would take effect on Oct. 1.
“When I arrived to work the morning of August 20, I was stopped by security and two men wanted to talk in a conference room. They told me that day is my last day and to hand over my badge and they gave me a termination letter. I asked if I could work from home until things get back to normal full time, but they said, ‘We feel like this is best for you and today is your last day.’
‘Weird, Abnormal Things Happening in Healthy People’
Loni Thalheimer has been a nurse for 11 years.“I worked for my current hospital for seven [years]. The past six years, I worked as [a] post-anesthesia care nurse and had taken over the weekend charge nurse position at the University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“About two–three months into the community having full access to vaccines, I started seeing A LOT of people coming in for MRIs for idiopathic seizures, migraines, dyskinesias, paresthesias, and even comas.
“I stated we are seeing a rise in weird, abnormal things happening in healthy people, and everyone refused to answer me. If we are in a clinical trial, why are we not required to be collecting data? I was baffled,” Thalheimer said.
In July, her employer announced that the vaccine would now be mandatory for all employees, including for remote workers.
“They locked all of our policies and we couldn’t access them for weeks. They stated we could apply for religious and medical exemptions, and if granted, we would be required to test weekly.
“They had a specific form online that you had to fill out asking ridiculous questions like ... What religion do you belong to? Have you had other vaccines in the past and how do they differ? At the bottom of the form, it made you check a box to submit your form saying that you agree to all UCHealth’s vaccine policies with COVID. May I remind you that they had the policies locked and would not inform us of what these policies would be,” Thalheimer went on.
“I got a signed letter from my doctor stating that I was currently trying to conceive and that I had major vaccine reactions in the past and that they were not recommended for me.”
Her exemption application was denied and she was then terminated from her job on Oct. 28.
“They are now trying to deny me unemployment because it was ‘voluntary’ ... I have no job, no income, and horrible health insurance, and I am pregnant and have a four-year-old.
‘My Contract Was Canceled’
Heather Pope is a registered nurse with a compact license out of Oklahoma.“I worked as a contract nurse in the emergency department throughout the whole pandemic, and finally gave it up when my contract was canceled over me refusing to administer the J&J to a patient,” Pope said.
At least 10 other nurses who were fired in different states reached out to The Epoch Times. Many of them felt they had worked very hard at their profession and had followed all the rules during the pandemic.
Some of them are heartbroken and think that firing them over bodily autonomy is offensive, and both mentally and financially stressful for them, as well as their families.
