COVID-19 Vaccine Mandated For Texas Hospital Employees

HOUSTON, TX — A Texas hospital system is requiring all of its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccination by June 7 or else they’ll be suspended or fired.

Houston Methodist, which employs around 26,000 people across six hospitals and a medical center, announced the new company mandate earlier this month, according to The Houston Chronicle. Around 84 percent of hospital staff, or four out five employees, have already been vaccinated.

Marc Broom, CEO of Houston Methodist, said in a letter to employees obtained by the paper they were approaching herd immunity but needed more people to get vaccinated to achieve it. More than 4,100 employees have yet to receive their first dose of the vaccine.

“As health care workers we’ve taken a sacred oath to do everything possible to keep our patients safe and healthy — this includes getting vaccinated,” he said.

Vaccination mandates are not new for Houston Methodist. Since 2009, employees have been required to get the flu vaccine every year unless they have a medical or religious exemption, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Some employees have taken issue with the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, saying they’re not comfortable with taking the vaccine because it hasn’t been fully approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s not fair to be forced to inject something that we’re not comfortable with,” Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse with the hospital, told KHOU-TV.

Bridges has started a petition to have Houston Methodist rescind the mandate, and it has already received more than 4,000 signatures.

“If you want the vaccine that is great but it should be your choice,” the petition reads. “Many people feel it is too new and not enough time or research yet to be deemed perfectly safe.”
More than 1 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered worldwide, with the United States having administered more than 200 million of those doses, according to CNN.

The three COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have all received an emergency use authorization from the FDA. Although different from the traditional drug approval process, the emergency use authorization is used during public health emergencies and cuts down on a lot of the paperwork needed in approving a drug for public use, according to PolitiFact.

The clinical testing and research done on the vaccines and other safety requirements for use, such as filing periodic safety reports, are similar to what is done when drugs traditionally go through the FDA approval process, PolitiFact said.