![]() “A lot of employees are asking, ‘why are they pushing so hard for it (the vaccine)?’ ” she said. She also has questions about how much protection the vaccine provides and its side effects, and hopes that between now and January that Tower Health will look into those concerns and revoke the mandate. If it comes down to it, though, Oaks said she’d stick to her belief in the freedom to make her own medical decisions. “So I’d have to choose between losing my job or going against my ethical and religious beliefs.” “I’ve dedicated my life to this job,” she said. She is applying for an exemption, but said that if she doesn’t receive it she’d get fired before she got vaccinated, as difficult as that would be for her. Missy Oaks, a critical care nurse at Reading Hospital for two and a half years and a nurse since 2009, was also part of Monday’s meeting and has helped organize those opposed to the mandate. Reading Hospital, Tower’s flagship, employs about half of the system’s employees. “People are fed up with the stress,” he said. For some of them, the vaccination requirement is the last straw, he said. Part of the issue is that so many in health care are already burnt out from their work during the pandemic, he said. He said that because doctors earn high salaries, many won’t be willing to leave the profession, but said he knows some that like him would rather change careers than give in to the mandate. He said he’s already applied for jobs elsewhere, and is considering getting into consulting or taking a break from medicine to see how things play out. He said regardless of whether he receives it, he won’t be getting vaccinated. He has requested a religious exemption but has not yet heard back. Tower is already short on employees, Galantino said, and if more workers leave due to vaccine mandates it will hurt patient care in the community.Ī Reading Hospital physician who requested anonymity said he, too, would rather lose his job than get vaccinated due to the mandate. Some are concerned about side effects of the vaccine, or question its effectiveness, while others have decided against it for more religious reasons or feel their freedom is being compromised, she said.Ī number of staff members who’ve already had COVID feel they should be exempt because they’ve already had the virus and believe they now have immunity from it, she said. Galantino, who took part in a meeting Monday on Tower’s mandate, said she is one of more than 300 staff members in a private Facebook group who oppose the mandate for numerous reasons. “I don’t feel my employer should make that decision for me.” But I think it’s a personal decision whether to get the vaccine,” she said. “I was really hoping it didn’t come to that. Prior to receiving the exemption, though, Galantino said she was willing to risk her job rather than agree to the mandate. Like other staff members who are ruled exempt, she is required to be tested for COVID twice per week, but Galantino said staff hasn’t received details on how that process will work. Several Reading Hospital nurses and a physician say they’re part of a group of employees who won’t agree to the vaccine mandate even if it means getting fired.Īmong them is Mary Galantino, an oncology nurse at Reading Hospital since 2015, who this week received a one-year religious exemption for the vaccine. ![]() “It also allows us to implement our annual flu vaccination of staff which takes place October to December each year.”įor those at Tower who don’t want the vaccine, the fight is fraught. “This additional time is needed to work through logistical and administrative processes to ensure a smooth implementation and management of the mandate,” Tower said in a statement to Reading Eagle. The West-Reading based health system said the extension was made for logistical and administrative reasons. 23, and the mandate would have taken effect Nov. Tower had initially said the mandate would take effect 90 days from the full approval of the Pfizer two-dose vaccine. 15, per a mandate from the city of Philadelphia. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and Philadelphia-based Tower Health Medical Group and Urgent Care sites still must be vaccinated by Oct. Tower told employees last week it had extended its deadline until Jan. Tower Health has postponed the deadline for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for many of its 14,000 employees until next year.
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