North Carolina hospital system fires 175 employees for refuting vaccine mandate

A North Carolina hospital system announced Monday they fired around 175 employees for not complying with its' vaccine mandate by the prescribed deadline. The Novant Health system — with 15 hospitals and 800 clinics — instituted its vaccine mandate on July 22.

A couple hundred more joined the 175 initially suspended, but they submitted their exemptions or got their first dose during that five-day grace period. The official deadline for all employees ran out back on September 15.

Spokeswoman Megan Rivers tweeted an update to its mandate. "Last week, nearly 200 additional team members came into compliance with vaccine mandate, increasing that rate across Novant Health to over 99%."

The healthcare company gave this statement to The Washington Post about the situation.

"We stand by our decision to make the vaccine mandatory as we have a responsibility to protect our patients, visitors and team members, regardless of where they are in our health system. We couldn't be prouder of our team members who chose to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and remain part of our team at Novant Health."

According to the outlet, 375 unvaccinated employees at the deadline whittled down to 175 fired employees for non-compliance.

Rivers told The Post she was "thrilled" that more than 99 percent of the 35,000 employees at the company "followed the mandatory vaccination program."

The paper goes on to say this example is not the first of its kind. Both Houston Methodist and Christiana Care in Delaware have reportedly let over one hundred of their employees go, apiece.

In response to the vacancies left by the unvaccinated, some states have begun adapting. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul opted to replace fired healthcare workers with National Guard troops in the interim.

The education sector of the New York City economy intends to challenge the vaccine mandate. This comes amidst growing protests against Hochul's mandates hitting the streets of the Big Apple.

On a national scale, unvaccinated NBA players like Kyrie Irving and Jonathan Isaac have publicly doubted the COVID vaccine, throwing the establishment media into disarray.

Over in Massachusetts, dozens of state police troopers elect to resign in response to the COVID mandate in their jurisdiction.

The latest move on the federal level that set the standard for the COVID vaccine conversation came as the Biden administration publicly launched vaccine mandates for all businesses with over one hundred employees earlier this month.

President Joe Biden's views on vaccine mandates became known weeks before that.