New York Hospital Fires 100 Employees Over Vaccine Mandate

100 hospital workers are now looking for a new job after they were let go from their current positions because they missed the deadline for the New York State COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

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WGRZ is reporting that Kaleida Health has let go more than 100 employees because those staff members did not get fully vaccinated by New York State's December 5th deadline.

New York State mandated that all health care workers be fully vaccinated by December 5th.

In a press release, Kaleida Health stated that combines with the previous vaccine mandate in November the company has parted ways with around 200 staff who did not comply with the mandate.

Back in November, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld New York’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The court rejected arguments by healthcare professionals in two different district court cases that the mandate’s failure to provide for religious exemptions violated their religious freedoms.

Kaleida Health also stated that because of the reduction of its staff and reduction of available beds in their hospitals that are postponing non-essential elective surgeries.

Given the reduction in workforce, the subsequent reduction in staffed beds, the significant rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations across our facilities, and the spike in COVID-19 cases in our region, Kaleida Health is proactively postponing non-essential elective inpatient surgeries at Buffalo General Medical Center and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital

This past Friday New York Governor Kathy Hochul gave the state health department the discretion to order hospital administrators to limit non-essential, non-urgent procedures for hospital systems with "limited capacity." That capacity is defined as below 10 percent staffed bed capacity or other utilization factors.