individuals have decided not to put their patients first .”
Boom noted , “ While we celebrate this remarkable accomplishment , I know that today may be difficult for some who are sad about losing a colleague who ’ s decided to not get vaccinated . We only wish them well and thank them for their past service to our community , and we must respect the decision they made . Since I announced this mandate in April , Houston Methodist has been challenged by the media , some outspoken employees and even sued . As the first hospital system to mandate COVID-19 vaccines we were prepared for this . The criticism is sometimes the price we pay for leading medicine .”
In the meeting with hospital leadership , Bridges says she asked them what would happen if she began to discuss the mandatory vaccination issue with the healthcare system ’ s other facilities and the public . “ They looked at me and they said , ‘ We strongly advise you against that .’ And I was like , ‘ Why ? What are you going to do ?’ They wouldn ’ t answer that question ,” Bridges says .
Bridges adds that she tried to communicate with Boom , calling his secretary to request a meeting before the meeting with Baytown Hospital leadership . Bridges says she never heard from him . “ So , when the meeting was over , David Bernard asked if he could let Mark Boom know that this matter is resolved and I said absolutely not ,” Bridges says , adding that she requested a meeting with Boom to address the concerns of employees who were too afraid to come forward themselves .
“ The next day I came back to work for my normal shift , checked email , and saw that Mark Boom had sent out a system-wide email stating that they were mandating the vaccine ,” Bridges says . “ We had until June 7 to be fully vaccinated , or we ’ d be put on a two-week unpaid suspension ; at the end of that we would be terminated . At this point the vaccine was still experimental under the FDA ’ s EUA . That day I watched all these employees start crying , there was so much anxiety everywhere . Many of them had to go to their own doctors to seek out anxiety medicine because they were so stressed and scared and didn ’ t know what they were going to do . A lot of them requested religious or medical exemptions but only a small percentage were approved . I personally don ’ t have any medical history that would suggest contraindication , and my religion doesn ’ t go against vaccination at all . I declined the vaccine because I didn ’ t want to play their game . I feel it is my right just be able to say ‘ No , I don ’ t want it , based on what I know about the vaccines .’ Any exemption would go against everything I was standing up for . I thought about it for a couple weeks and I decided to fight the mandate as hard as I can .”
Bridges continues , “ The very next day after the mandate was announced , I was scheduled to be off , and I was so mad . That ’ s when I started looking up the local media . I called and emailed them , and two local outlets agreed to meet with me that day . I did my first media interview , asking them to keep me anonymous because I didn ’ t know what would happen at that time , but they didn ’ t do a good job hiding my identity , so everyone knew it was me .”
Bridges became an overnight media sensation as the story spread quickly . “ After that I thought , ‘ Oh well , I ’ m putting myself
Many individuals are fighting for their choice to rely on herd immunity – or what experts are preferring to call natural immunity – maintaining that for individuals not in high-risk groups and / or with co-morbidities , COVID-19 illness is mild and resolves in a short amount of time .” out there , not going to try to hide ,’” Bridges says . “ I also created a Change . org petition ; last I looked , there was somewhere around 10,500 signatures . After the first few media interviews , it exploded and everybody wanted a piece of it , members of the media from around the world were reaching out to me . It was crazy for about a month and a half ; I was doing two to five interviews every day .”
Bridges says she did not face retribution on the job despite her high profile in the media . “ My lawyer said they ’ re not going to touch you because if they do anything to you , it ’ s going to be seen as retaliation , and that would be a whole different lawsuit ,” Bridges says . “ They left me alone after I went public . After that meeting , the CEO never talked to me again . Everyone – my director , my managers – just let me work and left me alone . After creating the petition and seeing that requests for meetings were ignored , I realized they weren ’ t willing to discuss anything further or reach any kind of compromise , so that ’ s when I started a Go Fund Me account , hired a lawyer , and continued to speak with the media . When we announced the lawsuit , many throughout the Methodist system started reaching out to me , wanting to be a part of it .”
Giving Natural Immunity a Chance
Not every healthcare system has been Draconian in its mandates . Geraghty ( 2021 ) reports that , “ A hospital chain in Pennsylvania announced a revised policy that seems like a reasonable recognition that certain employees who caught and fought off COVID-19 might not want to get vaccinated and prefer to stick with natural immunity . And for a lot of employers , that kind of immunity is good enough . St . Luke ’ s University Health Network is allowing employees who already had COVID-19 to defer getting the COVID-19 vaccine due to the natural immunity they have against the virus . St . Luke ’ s announced Aug . 9 that it was implementing a vaccine mandate for all employees , as well as everyone who conducts business in the healthcare organization . Under St . Luke ’ s new policy , individuals who were infected with COVID-19 and recovered can defer their shots for up to 12 months from the date tested positive . It may not be the only health network in the Lehigh Valley to adopt this policy . Brian Downs , spokesperson for Lehigh Valley Health Network , said network leadership is considering allowing employees to defer vaccinations if they have a natural immunity to COVID-19 .”
As Geraghty ( 2021 ) observes , “ What ’ s the argument against this policy going to be , that this hospital chain doesn ’ t understand human health ?”
In mid-September , Lehigh Valley Health Network decided to allow the deference of immunizations over natural immunity , as reported by Greiss ( 2021 ), who adds , “ St . Luke ’ s and LVHN are still encouraging employees with natural immunity to get the vaccine to maximize their protection against the viral infection . St . Luke ’ s leadership will also reassess the deferral requests and may update or alter guidance later based on new information . Sam Kennedy , spokesperson for St . Luke ’ s , said the move to implement this exemption was made based on guidance from network infectious disease experts . “ St . Luke ’ s infectious disease experts are following the science , and our policies are based on