- Industries across the country are beginning to mandate the
COVID-19 vaccine, sometimes firing unvaccinated employees. - The proportion of fired employees to vaccinated and employed workers, however, is extremely minor.
- Without an alternate means of compliance like regular testing, however, industries are at risk of staff shortages.
Major players in the airline industry, medical industry, and education system have each threatened to fire employees who refuse the COVID-19 vaccination. So far, the
And while it's easy to get caught up on headlines about dozens or hundreds of employees fired from a large company for not abiding by vaccine mandates, it's more important to look at the larger proportion of employees who were not fired and abided by the rules in the first place.
For example, Houston Methodist, one of Houston's largest medical systems, announced it fired 153 of its employees for failing to get the jab by June. And while a group of its fired employees has been outspoken about the decision, likening Methodist's vaccination requirements to Nazi concentration camps, the vast majority of its employee base have been vaccinated: The 153 fired employees make up less than one percent of Methodist's 24,947 employees.
Houston Methodist isn't alone.
Novant Health, a North Carolina hospital system, previously announced similar vaccination requirements for its employees. While the company said it's fired 375 of its workers, that's still a minuscule amount for Novant Health as a whole: according to the system's spokesperson, that's just around 1% of the company's overall workforce.
At the behest of the Biden Administration, several airlines have also begun to roll out a vaccine mandate for their employees, but United Airlines was the first to actually fire employees who were out of compliance with the rule. While United Airlines originally said it planned to fire 600 of its workers, it ultimately ended up firing just 320, or less than one-half of one percent of its 67,000 employees.
Vaccine mandates are also beginning to take hold in local educational systems. As of Monday, public school teachers in New York City will be required to be vaccinated in order to work and have offered little resistance.
New York's Department of Education said approximately 95% of its employees have already been vaccinated with the United Federation of Teachers saying the number could be as high as 97% of the city's 78,000 teachers, meaning there are less than 3,000 teachers in the city that are out of compliance.
Mandates present an inherent risk of staff shortages
Company-wide vaccine mandates have proven to increase the organization's vaccine numbers but can come at a cost: if enough workers hold out, it can be deleterious for the company or industry's ability to function.
While United Airlines has had little difficulty in ensuring its workers are vaccinated, the American Pilots Association recently warned that the industry could see shortages if there are no "alternate means of compliance," such as regular testing.
School districts are also at risk when mandating vaccines. However, New York City at least is already on top of that: New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said on Friday that the system has more than enough vaccinated substitute teachers at the ready to account for any unvaccinated full-time employees.
Despite high rates of vaccinated employees, the decision for medical systems to mandate COVID-19 vaccines comes with major risks: Many healthcare facilities are already facing staffing shortages due to burnout, violent patients, and poor working conditions, leading to fewer available patient beds and longer wait times for patients.
Medical staff shortages were already happening before the vaccine mandates began, meaning access to quality healthcare may become even more difficult if enough firings occur and exacerbate the shortage.
President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees, contractors, and businesses with more than 100 employees begins on November 23, leaving ample time for unvaccinated workers to get vaccinated before any repercussions are doled out.
The US is averaging approximately 741,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered each day, according to the New York Times' vaccination tracker. Approximately two-thirds of adults in the country are fully vaccinated.