RWJBarnabas Health right in firing unvaccinated workers (Opinion)

118 employees of RWJBarnabas Health have been terminated because they refused to comply with the Friday deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Despite whatever childish whining you’ll hear to the contrary, they did the right thing. If anything they were overly generous in their timeline.

Many companies that have nothing to do with healthcare have been requiring vaccination before President Biden announced any Labor Department plans. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Saks, Tyson Foods and many others have made it a condition of employment.

These companies don’t medically treat immunocompromised people. Healthcare systems do. We just lost former Secretary of State Colin Powell because of Covid-19 complications when his immune system was depleted due to battling multiple myeloma. It is for patients like him especially that makes it imperative healthcare workers at RWJBarnabas be fully vaccinated.

It’s unconscionable to have people within a health system send mixed messages and not lead by example thus fueling more misinformation and vaccine hysteria. If Saks expects office workers to be vaccinated you’d better believe a hospital system needs to expect the same.

They have the right to run their organization the way they see fit. It’s a wholly conservative point of view. The workers who were released had every opportunity and they had a choice. They chose to not be vaccinated and lose their position.

I’m tired of the liars. I’m sick to death of the conspiracy garbage and misinformation and shame on anyone who has allowed it to spread. This country has lost over 724,000 lives to this virus. That’s more than the Spanish flu. That’s more than any other health crisis in the nation’s history.

This is real.

You know what’s not real? Saying that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus. Saying that masks do more harm than good. And telling yourself you’re some brave patriot by refusing to do your part to stop this pandemic.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.