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Houston Methodist employees facing vaccine deadline
FOX 26 Reporter Ivory Hecker has more as 117 employees are facing unpaid suspension because they didn't get a COVID-19 vaccine.
BAYTOWN, Texas - 117 Houston Methodist employees spent their final day at work Monday after refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The hospital told FOX 26, the employees will enter a two-week unpaid suspension starting Tuesday, after which they’ll be terminated, unless they change their minds and get the shot.
As the hours ticked down, a representative for the unvaccinated employees told FOX 26, none of them have changed their minds about avoiding the shot.
"Most of us have already began looking," said Bridges who works at Methodist’s Baytown campus. "Some of us have already found other jobs."
Bridges says she’s fully prepared to part ways with the job she’s had for six and a half years, planning a walkout march with her coworkers after their shifts end Monday. They are suing Houston Methodist for requiring them to take a vaccine that has not been approved by the FDA.
"We do go with the judge this week, so hopefully he’ll grant us something, and maybe we won’t get fired. But if we do, we’re gonna keep fighting—going up to the Supreme level as a wrongful termination lawsuit," said Bridges.
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She says the patients with severe side effects after vaccination that she has treated have contributed to her decision not to get vaccinated.
"I’ve seen the blood clots and the miscarriages for sure," said Bridges. "Those are the most severe ones that I’ve seen with my own eyes. For example, I had one a couple days ago that was in her 30s—completely nothing wrong with her—very active. Took the shot and ended up getting multiple blood clots through her legs and her lungs at one time."
Jared Woodfill, the attorney for the medical staffers who are suing Houston Methodist, says he’s adding dozens of new clients to the lawsuit.
"Another 50 or so have contacted us, and we continue to be called every day—a whole host of folks who work for Methodist who don’t want to take the experimental vaccine," said Woodfill.
RELATED: More than 100 employees suing Houston Methodist for requiring them to get COVID-19 vaccine
Methodist declined to do an interview but sent a statement saying in part: "To be clear, the claim that the COVID-19 vaccination is experimental is false. The COVID-19 vaccines have gone through preclinical testing, three phases of clinical trials and external review by two independent panels of experts and two civil service scientific reviews."
"It clearly has not gone through the same rigors that a typical vaccine would go through," said Woodfill. "In fact, the CDC admits that. If you look at our petition, we have quotes from people on the CDC that say, we cannot force people to take this, because it is experimental."
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Keith Sullins is one Houston man who submitted himself for the Moderna trial before it was authorized for emergency use. He told FOX 26, Moderna checks in on him each week since he got his shots.
"Over the next two years, I will be a test monkey or whatever you want to call it," said Sullins, adding he considers the vaccine experimental to some degree because he’s still being studied. "So far so good, and I would tell people, I’m fine."
Houston Methodist staffers planned to stage their walkout and march at 7:45 p.m. Monday night at Houston Methodist Baytown. They said they’d be joined by staffers who are vaccinated but are against forced vaccines. They said Methodist employees from every hospital campus are a part of the lawsuit.