Indiana University (IU) Health employees had September 1 as a deadline to get vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. After the deadline expired, the health workers were given two weeks unpaid suspension. The two-week suspension ended on September 14, and after this, around 125 employees refused to get vaccinated and decided to quit their jobs.
IU Health spokesperson explains
A few days ago, a spokesperson for IU Health declared for a media outlet that the 125 employees decided not to get vaccinated and resigned from their jobs. There are around 36,000 IU Health employees, and most of those who refused Covid-19 vaccines were part-time workers. The spokesperson assured that those who quit were part time workers or even employees who had not worked for several months. Therefore, their resignation did not cause a shortage among staff members, and the organization is seeking to hire more people.
Vaccine mandates became a reality
President Biden held a press conference at the beginning of September and explained that a solution to stop outbreaks is implementing a new vaccine mandate. This vaccine mandate requires federal workers, health workers, collaborators, and companies with over 100 employees to get vaccinated against the new coronavirus. This new mandate is not the last one for sure, as the Delta strain continues to create a surge in new Covid-19 cases. President Biden explained that 80 million U.S residents are unvaccinated.
Federal agencies will be allowed to create their own policies regarding vaccination.
Nursing home employees need to follow the vaccine mandate, as well as those who work in the health industry: ambulance services, hospitals, clinics, and other health-related institutions.
U.S vaccination progress
According to statistics, the U.S has administered over 383 million doses of the three authorized Covid-19 vaccines. The FDA gave the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine full authorization.
