On June 12 Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order (EO) No. 332 to lift the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for health care settings in New Jersey.
This is welcome news. Thousands of health care workers were forced to choose between keeping their jobs and taking an unwanted medical intervention. But according to Melissa Alfieri-Collins, a registered nurse who advocates who advocates on behalf of about 5,000 nurses as part of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC), there’s still a long road ahead.
Alfieri-Collins asserts that most hospital systems in NJ are still requiring mandated Covid vaccines as well as flu vaccines.
Last month the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reached a settlement with health care workers from the Inspira Health System who were wrongfully denied religious exemptions for mandatory influenza vaccinations. The EEOC confirmed that it was a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to the sincerely held religious beliefs of their employees. But religious exemptions continue to be denied.
“We still have several nurses being denied for their flu exemptions despite the EEOC ruling for Inspira nurses in my group,” she says.
Furthermore, many nurses who have not received vaccinations for COVID suspect that gatekeeping tactics are being employed to keep them out. Hospitals like Hackensack Meridian use pre-screening forms to ask candidates about their willingness to receive a COVID shot and even their intentions around requesting either a religious or medical exemption.
Nurses who seek religious exemptions aren’t getting called back for interviews according to Alfieri-Collins.
“These very invasive pre-screening tools are being used to disqualify qualified health care workers for making a personal medical choice based on deeply held religious beliefs,” she says.
“There is a major issue recruiting new nurses into schools given the current climate. We have an extreme shortage of nurses, despite many wanting to go back into the healthcare field. It’s a broken system and unvaccinated nurses are being treated unfairly. Nurses who filed for exemptions were removed from school and from clinical settings.”
None of this is rooted in science. Real world evidence and a growing body of science tell us that Covid vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission. In fact, the evidence suggests that the vaccinated are more likely to get Covid. A recent study concluded:
“Since the XBB lineages became dominant, adults “not-up-to-date” by the CDC definition have a lower risk of COVID-19 than those “up-to-date” on COVID-19 vaccination, bringing into question the value of this risk classification definition.”
Alfieri-Collins argues that a true safety first approach would involve addressing nurse-to-patient ratios and creating reasonable hours to ensure the health and safety of both staff and patients. To that end, she and others are calling on legislators to pass S304, a bill that would mandate nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals.
But the New Jersey Hospital Association is pushing back, claiming that “determining adequate nursing staff is complex.”
Cathy Bennett, president and CEO of NJHA says, “The last three years have taught us that nurses, and teams have taught us that nurses, and teams of other experienced health care professionals, need flexibility to use their clinical expertise to make the best decisions for their patients.”
Apparently, “flexibility to use their clinical expertise to make the best decisions” doesn’t apply when it comes to making health care decisions for themselves… or applying one-size-fits-all medical interventions on their patients. As of this writing, the NJHA website still fails to acknowledge the religious exemptions confirmed by the recent EEOC decision.
Change is happening. But organizations like NJCVC are determined to see it through so that qualified nurses can get back to healing patients. Our nurses deserve more than a nod to choice.
HOPE for Today - thank you Ann for your article ...