Nurse willing to lose ‘everything’ refuses COVID shot, is escorted from her job in CA
A nurse who said she was willing to lose “everything” after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 filmed herself being escorted from her job in California.
She said Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center denied her request for a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate, and didn’t provide reason why, based on what she called her “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
She then said she was put on unpaid administrative leave.
“I’m willing to lose my safety, security, my house, everything for freedom,” the nurse is heard saying in the video.
A spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente — a health care system based in Oakland, California, with facilities across the U.S. — identified the woman as Victoria Jensen, a nurse employed at the system’s San Diego location
In Jensen’s video, she is seen being escorted out of the facility by security guards as she says no one explained why her religious beliefs were “not good enough for Kaiser,” arguing the facility does not believe in religious freedom.
The health care organization began mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for employees in August with a Sept. 30 deadline, while allowing for vaccine exemption requests “which fully meet all federal, state and local laws,” Dr. Andrew Bindman, Kaiser Permanente’s chief medical officer, said in a statement to McClatchy News.
This was in accordance with California’s Aug. 5 public health order requiring all health care workers to have received two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by the same deadline.
The hospital responds
Ahead of Sept. 30, Bindman said “we were notified by some of our labor partners and others of open, online discussions around ways to avoid the vaccine mandate by misusing the legitimate religious exemption process.”
After Kaiser Permanente reviewed vaccine exemption requests, Bindman said, it was discovered that many workers put in “similar or nearly identical requests containing language taken word-for-word from free and paid templated online forms.”
“We believe that misusing the religious exemption to avoid vaccination is disrespectful to those with sincere religious beliefs, and could violate the ethical standards we expect our employees to meet,” he added.
When an employee’s exemption request is denied, Bindman said they are provided with a chance to get vaccinated and return to work.
“We hope none of our employees will choose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated,” he said.
In regards to Jensen, Bindman said she was told she needed to speak with Human Resources about her exemption request, “not her manager or the facility leadership.”
However, the nurse said in the video she was asking “all day” for someone in Human Resources to talk to her about why her exemption request was denied.
It appears that Jensen will not be returning to Kaiser Permanente, according to her recent interview with KSWB-TV, where she said she will miss her coworkers and has been contacted by potential future employers.
Throughout all Kaiser Permanente facilities, over 93% of employees are vaccinated, according to Bindman.
He said roughly 1% of workers did not respond to the vaccine mandate and are on unpaid administrative leave. They’ve been given until Dec. 1 to respond to the vaccine requirement.
Earlier in October, an anesthesiologist at UCLA Health in California, Dr. Christopher Rake, also recorded himself being escorted from his job for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
He said he was “willing to go lose everything — job, paycheck, freedom, even my life for this cause.”
How can a religious exemption work?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prevents employers from discriminating on the basis of religion by enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Under the act, employers “should assume that a request for religious accommodation is based on sincerely held religious beliefs,” the EEOC states online.
“However, if an employer has an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or the sincerity of a particular belief, the employer would be justified in making a limited factual inquiry and seeking additional supporting information,” it adds.
Bindman noted that to ensure Kaiser Permanente’s review of vaccine exemption requests was “fair” and “discouraged misuse,” they “gave employees the opportunity to ensure their requests reflected their sincerely held beliefs.”
“We are doing all we can to support that decision-making process with information and discussion,” he added.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Nurse willing to lose ‘everything’ refuses COVID shot, is escorted from her job in CA."
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