Texas Hospital Suspends Close to 200 Unvaccinated Employees

A day after an employee protest at Houston Methodist Hospital for a new policy that requires all employees to be vaccinated, almost 200 have been suspended without pay.

Many can look at the hospital suspending 178 of their workers as a small percentage of the nearly 25,000 people employed by the Houston Methodist Hospital System, but the topic is up for major debate.

According to CBS NEWS, employees at Houston Methodist Hospital and its seven medical facilities were given until this past Monday, June 7th to get a COVID vaccine or they would be suspended without pay.

If by June 21st they don't receive the vaccine, they would be terminated.

It should also be noted that of the nearly 178 people suspended, 27 of those only received the first dose of the vaccine.

This comes after Governor Abbott signed Texas Bill 968 making it unlawful for businesses to "prohibit any business operating in Texas from requiring vaccine passports or any vaccine information"

Texas Senate Bill 968 mostly has to do with Texas' preparedness for and response to public health emergencies, but there's language beginning on page 13 of the legislation that specifically bans businesses from requiring someone to provide documentation certifying their vaccination status. Basically, they can't deny you entry or service if you don't have proof you were vaccinated for COVID-19.

I checked the CDC website specifically for information regarding workers in the medical field being required to be vaccinated and it said that:

The federal government does not mandate (require) vaccination for individuals. For some healthcare workers or essential employees, a state or local government or employer, for example, may require or mandate that workers be vaccinated as a matter of state or other law.

So now we have a debate on our hands.

In my opinion, this is a sticky situation because common sense should apply here, especially if you have to come in contact with patients in any form, yes, you should be fully vaccinated.

If you hold an office position where you don't come in contact with employees that deal with patients then, no, you shouldn't have to be required to get the vaccine.

At the same time, whatever decision is reached I don't think you should penalize anyone for not choosing to take the vaccine.

What do you think?

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