GoFundMe Takes Down $180,000 Fundraiser for Nurse Seeking to Overturn Vaccine Mandate

People gather to protest Houston Methodist Hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized by June 7, 2021, at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital in Baytown, Texas. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP

GoFundMe has said it took down a campaign worth more than $180,000 that was started by a nurse who sought to overturn a Texas hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The campaign was created by Jennifer Bridges, a former registered nurse at Houston Methodist hospital who was fired along with hundreds of other staff members earlier this year after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

“When our team initially reviewed the fundraiser, it was within our terms of service as the funds were for legal fees to fight vaccine mandates,” Heidi Hagberg, a spokesperson for GoFundMe, said in a statement to news outlets this week. “The fundraiser has since been updated to include misinformation which violates our terms of service.”

Hagberg didn’t elaborate on the nature of the alleged misinformation. The Epoch Times has contacted GoFundMe and Bridges for comment.

GoFundMe also stated that it has taken down “hundreds” of other fundraisers that allegedly contained “misinformation related to vaccines.”

Earlier this year, Bridges told Fox News that because she already contracted COVID-19, she doesn’t need to get the vaccine. Several studies have shown that a prior COVID-19 infection provides long-lasting and robust protection against the virus, and one Israeli research paper released about a month ago found that natural immunity confers greater protection than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Bridges also confirmed to the Epoch Times in June that she was fired by Houston Methodist, which was one of the first hospital systems to mandate vaccines in the United States.

“We worked so hard last year,” she said at the time. “I mean, we were there through thick and thin when we had no help … it was horrible. And these people that are putting forth these rules right now for us and kicking us to the curb, they weren’t there. They weren’t even in the building to be seen for months. They were staying at home while we were doing all the work.”

A spokesperson for Houston Methodist at the time described some of Bridges’ comments as false.

“Our leaders have supported our employees every step of the way,” the spokesperson said over the summer. “We greatly appreciate what all of our dedicated employees have done for our patients, and our leaders have been by their side since the beginning.”

A lawsuit that was filed by Bridges and a number of other healthcare workers against Houston Methodist was dismissed by a judge in June. Their attorneys, who have argued that mandatory vaccines violate the Nuremberg Code against medical experimentation, have appealed the judge’s decision.

Last year, GoFundMe courted controversy when it took down fundraising pages for Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who was charged in a shooting during widespread riots and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.