(LifeSiteNews) — The state of New York declared a state of emergency as it is facing a shortage of healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 jab mandate. Anyone working in a healthcare facility had to get at least the first COVID jab by 5 p.m. on Monday, or else faces termination.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul officially declared a state of emergency Monday, which will allow her to call in National Guard troops who are “medically trained,” according to the governor, to fill in. The most recent estimate places the number of unjabbed healthcare workers at 94,000, about 16 percent of employees.
Neither the New York Department of Health nor Hochul’s office responded to LifeSite’s request for comment Tuesday morning.
Hochul’s executive order allows licensed medical workers in other states to practice in New York and will give more liberty for medical students who will graduate by 2022 to practice medicine.
The shortage has led to cuts in healthcare capabilities at a number of places.
“Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse will temporarily close 22 of its 35 operating rooms starting Monday in anticipation of a growing staff shortage,” Syracuse.com reported Monday.
The news site reported that “priority will be given to surgeries that are medically necessary, time sensitive or involve critical-care trauma cases, the hospital announced Friday.”
Upstate Medical University’s job bank lists over 300 open nursing positions and more than 700 nurse practitioner or physician assistant job openings.
It's official: Joe Biden has announced that his Administration will be forcing COVID vaccinations on nearly 1/3rd of American citizens, blatantly disregarding the personal objections of millions of people and moving America ever closer towards a medical dictatorship.
We cannot stand for this unprecedented overreach, and we will not submit to Biden's tyrannical public coercion efforts.
Please SIGN this urgent petition informing the President that you will NOT comply with these unconstitutional vaccine mandate orders issued by the Biden Administration, and that elected officials should act in their capacity to block these intrusive demands.
On Thursday, September 9th, Joe Biden announced the latest round of federal orders meant to further coerce large swaths of the public into getting the COVID vaccine -- many against their will.
While the legal standing of these measures is, at best, dubious, the Biden Administration appears more ready than ever to gut our individual rights and practically erase medical autonomy in our country.
This latest escalation in overreach was announced via a televised speech in which Biden outlined a new "six-point plan" that includes far more than just six avenues to achieve mass medical compliance.
Among the most egregious new federal mandates are the following:
- A requirement that all private businesses employing more than 100 people mandate their workers get the Covid-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing (to be implemented by way of a new Department of Labor rule)
- A requirement that all federal employees and federal contractors get the COVID vaccine
- A requirement that all healthcare workers in facilities that receive reimbursement from Medicare and/or Medicaid (an estimated 17 million) get the Covid-19 vaccine without an alternative testing option
- A requirement that all Head Start teachers get the COVID vaccine
- A federal effort to lobby states to implement vaccine mandates for all school employees, and require regular testing of all students and school staff
- A federal effort to lobby entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing in order to grant entry to the public
- A continuation of mask mandates on all federal properties and during interstate travel (i.e. planes, trains, buses)
All in all, these new vaccine mandates, which will go into effect within the coming weeks, will affect an estimated 100 million American workers -- 2/3rds of the entire workforce!
And, according to an administration official, violations of these unconstitutional requirements could result in fines of up to $14,000.
While this is clearly a political ploy on the part of the Joe Biden and his team of power-hungry Washington insiders to shift the focus from their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the American public knows better: After nearly a year and a half's worth of arbitrary, ever-changing, and unconstitutional government mandates in response to the COVID outbreak, it was always a given that the Biden Administration would ramp things up even further when it behooved them.
And now, it would seem that time has officially come.
"This is not about freedom or personal choice," Biden uttered in his remarks, confirming his administration's blatant dismissal of all Americans' right(s) to accept or decline the experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
This is a stunning reversal from Biden's declaration last December that "I don’t think [the vaccine] should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory."
In fact, Biden even confirmed his intention to flout states' rights in the process, warning that "If these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way."
These are not the words of an "empathetic" leader; these are the words of an aspiring dictator. And, for the time being, the only way to stop Joe Biden's tyranny is through mass noncompliance.
As we've said from the beginning, science, basic logic, and common sense should dictate policy regarding COVID and the Delta variant.
But Joe Biden and the federal government have long abandoned those principles throughout this crisis, culminating into this disturbing yet inevitable flurry of intrusive vaccine mandates that use people's jobs, individual autonomy, and livelihood as leverage.
This assault on our individual rights, private businesses, and American workers cannot be tolerated, and the easiest way to combat these unlawful orders is to just say NO.
Please SIGN and SHARE this most important petition letting Joe Biden know that you will NOT comply with the unconstitutional medical demands being made by this administration, and that action should be taken to block any intrusive action against working Americans and private employers.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Biden announces vaccine requirements for private businesses, impacting tens of millions of Americans': https://www.
Erie County Medical Center has stopped taking in new ICU patients, according to a spokesperson for the system. “Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo suspended elective inpatient surgeries and had stopped accepting intensive-care patients from other hospitals as it prepares to fire hundreds of unvaccinated employees,” Reuters reported, based on a statement from spokesperson Peter Cutler.
The decision to lay off healthcare workers has drawn the criticism from medical doctors.
“Swapping out experienced nurses with nat guard who are not familiar with a hospital’s systems, local ways of doing things & emerg protocols has risks,” Johns Hopkins doctor Marty Makary wrote on Twitter. “Recognize natural imm, instead of demonizing our heroes who put their lives on the line and got Covid.”
University of California San Francisco medical professor Vinay Prasad agreed with Makary. “In March 2020 people talked about letting folks with natural immunity return to work, but since then we denied it exists. Truly don’t get it. Marty is right,” the practicing hematologist and oncologist said. Prasad is also an epidemiologist and biostatistician.
Political leaders have also taken notice.
“Gov. Hochul’s vaccine mandate is throwing our healthcare system into chaos, ruthlessly firing frontline healthcare workers who sacrificed so much the past 18 months to fight COVID,” Republican New York Congressman Lee Zeldin said. “Proud to join local healthcare workers in calling on the Governor to revoke this cruel order.”
A federal judge is currently considering a lawsuit from medical professionals who have sued to stop the Hochul administration from eliminating religious exemptions from its jab mandate.
“The main objection is a religious one,” Thomas More Society attorney Stephen Crampton told LifeSiteNews on September 22. “[I]t is the conviction that they would be, in effect, cooperating with condoning the taking of innocent human life through abortion, because each of the vaccines currently available was tested and/or produced with fetal cell lines from aborted babies.”
He said he expects his clients will prevail in court. The judge is expected to make a decision on a permanent injunction by October 12.
UPDATE, Sept. 28, 2021, 1:18 p.m.: