Believe it or not, things have actually gotten worse ever since Cuomo resigned.
Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York, fired 1,400 employees after they refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19. The mandate went into effect on September 27.
The 1,400 employees made up what was then "less than 2 percent of [Northwell's] staff," according to the New York Times. As of last week, 87 percent of hospital workers in New York state are "completely inoculated." So, while most have been vaccinated, others have refused to vaccinate, with some even filing lawsuits against Northwell.
"The goal was to get people vaccinated, not to get people terminated," a Northwell spokeman said.
The tone-deafness is incredible...
They should've said: the goal was to strong-arm people to get vaccinated.
And, by the way, since when has it been a company's responsibility to "get people vaccinated"?
Call me crazy, but I actually think these healthcare workers can decide for themselves if they want to get vaccinated. It's each individual's responsibility to decide whether they want to get vaccinated or not. And I mean ... these people are healthcare workers so they must know more than the average citizen, right?
Back in August, Northwell workers protested the mandate. Did Northwell stop to ask, "Gee, why do these healthcare workers not want to get vaccinated?"
So, make no mistake about it. Northwell absolutely knew this mandate would terminate employees.
Northwell said its vaccination mandate is so that they can "provide exceptional care all of [their] hospitals, without interruption and enable all our facilities to remain open and fully operational."
"Northwell has taken a rapid, aggressive approach to move successfully toward full vaccination compliance while maintaining continuity of care and ensuring that our high standard of patient safety is not compromised in any way," Northwell said in a statement.
