Karen Roses was fired by a New York hospital after refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. Karen Roses.
Karen Roses, Riverhead, New York, was fired by Northwell Health because she refused to receive the coronavirus vaccination.
New York's COVID-19 vaccine mandate came into effect September 27th. It requires that all hospital and nursing home staff have received their first dose.
Roses is just one of the few healthcare workers who would prefer to be fired than receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
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Karen Roses was a patient care technician at Peconic Bay Medical Centre in Riverhead, New York, for more than three years. According to Roses, the pandemic was exhausting and left hospitals with a shortage of staff and medical personnel. Then, there was the vaccination mandate.
Roses, 64, stated that healthcare workers were being "thrown under the bus" by Roses. Roses called the hospital "callous" in terminating employees without considering how long they had worked at the hospital, or whether they were seeking religious or medical exemptions to the vaccine.
The state mandate, which was in effect since August, required that New York's nursing home and hospital healthcare workers had received their first COVID-19 vaccination dose by September 27. Home care, hospice and adult care facility workers can wait until October 7. The vaccine deadline was met and Roses was removed.
Roses stated that unvaccinated healthcare workers are being blamed for the continuing pandemic. This is despite the fact that early research suggested that vaccine-eligible people could also spread the coronavirus. According to NBC News, a recent study has shown that COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduce the transmission of the virus. This is dependent on whether a person received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
According to September 29 data, 80% percent of Suffolk County's hospital employees have been fully vaccinated. 87% of all hospital employees in the state are fully vaccinated. The mandate has resulted in a doubled vaccination rate for hospital workers compared to adults.
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It's not just for healthcare workers. Roses stated that it affects everyone.
Roses stated that vaccination mandates, which are being rolled out nationwide for healthcare facilities as well as businesses, "take away freedom of choice" from those affected. Roses said that she is not against vaccination and has received other vaccines in her past.
Roses stated, "I don’t feel safe in the country I live in anymore." "Now, I feel like an object."
Insider's Allana Akhtar reported that some health systems blame unvaccinated workers for staff shortages. However, this problem may be exaggerated.
Roses stated that she will not receive the vaccine as it feels "rushed" or "forced." It doesn't guarantee she won’t contract coronavirus and spread it to others. Experts believe the vaccine was quickly developed by countries and organizations that invested heavily in its development. This saved time, according to Insider's Mary Meisenzahl.
"God could send down a message to me and tell me that I must get this vaccine. Roses replied, "Sorry Charlie. It's not something that someone or a group needs to tell me it is safe. It must be safe according to my research. People I speak to... Although I don't know the right words to describe it, I have to experience it myself."
Insider has received a termination letter from Northwell Health in New York. It states that Roses was warned many times about the need to get vaccinated. Roses was informed that she could re-enter the hospital if she had received her first dose of vaccines in the "near future".
Insider was told by a spokesperson for Peconic bay, a Northwell Health facility that Northwell has taken a "rapid, aggressive approach" to fully immunizing its employees.
"Regrettably, we had to terminate a few hundred employees," Victoria Palacio, Peconic bay spokesperson, said. She could not say how many were fired from Peconic.
Andrea Mineo, spokesperson for Northwell Health, told Insider that unvaccinated employees had been removed from the health care system as of September 27.
"Northwell regrets the loss of any employee in such circumstances," Mineo stated. We owe it our patients, staff and communities to get 100% vaccinated against COVID-19.
Insider has the original article.