President Biden addressed the current jobs crisis resulting from COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees at large businesses, saying that “the bigger story” is not “mass firings,” but that the mandates are working.
During an Oct. 7 speech in Illinois, Biden said: These requirements work. And as a business round table and others told me when I announced the first requirement that encouraged businesses to feel they could come in and demand the same thing of their employees, more people are getting vaccinated. More lives are being saved. Let’s be clear: When you see headlines and reports of mass firings, and hundreds of people losing their jobs, look at the bigger story. I’ve spoken with Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, who’s here today. United went from 59% of their employees to 99% of their employees in less than two months after implementing the requirement — 99%.Loading...
Biden’s comments come in response to recent reports of mass firings across the country as a result of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. At Northwell Health in New York, the state’s largest provider of health care, thousands of employees were fired after refusing the vaccine.
In Buffalo, the Erie County Medical Center suspended elective surgeries and stopped accepting intensive-care patients from other hospitals in preparation for the firing of hundreds of unvaccinated employees. The hospital is dealing with its busiest days on record because they are too overwhelmed to discharge patients as quickly as usual.
The mass firings of healthcare workers comes amid a nationwide nursing shortage – an issue that is especially problematic during a pandemic.
The crisis is also hurting police departments while the United States is experiencing a historic surge in violent crime. According to Fox 13, the Seattle Police Department will have to fire hundreds of officers if they do not meet an Oct. 18 vaccination deadline.
“As of Oct. 6, 292 sworn personnel had yet to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination,” Fox 13 reported.
