Resistance Develops as NC Hospitals Adopt Vaccine Mandates

CHARLOTTE – It’s here. The time of which many warned, in which the schism between the vaccinated and unvaccinated cleaves communities, schools, workforces, and neighbors into two distinct tiers. Hospital systems around the State of North Carolina are beginning announce COVID vaccination requirements for staff, drawing a mixture of support, surprise, and protest.

In Charlotte, two hospital systems are requiring the vaccination:

“[…] two major Charlotte hospital systems are requiring workers to get COVID-19 vaccines, and it’s not just healthcare tackling the issue.

An employment attorney tells FOX 46 there is no law against a private company requiring the vaccine in North Carolina.

“I just found out and I was devastated,” said Brianna Isham, a healthcare worker who’s upset over a mandated vaccine for workers at some North Carolina hospitals.

“I am concerned the vaccines are being pushed when they don’t have FDA approval,” said Isham.

North Carolina is an ‘employment at will’ state, which the attorney says means a company has the right to fire you for any reason unless it’s an illegal one. Atrium Health says all of its employees must be fully vaccinated or have an approved medical or religious exemption.

Atrium says they don’t view this as any different from other requirements like the flu shot or measles and chicken pox vaccines. And Novant Health is requiring employees to get the shot by September 15.

Novant Health says right now about 67% of their employees have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. […]”

Over in the Durham, the issue of vaccine mandates is sparking protest from Duke Health employees:

The NC Heathcare Association, a lobbying group for hospitals that does the heavy lifting of protecting its monopolies via the Certificate of Need racket, is all for its members mandating the vaccine.

“[…] “With this Delta variant, that’s 50 times more contagious than any other COVID variant, it’s the right thing to do,” Stephen Lawler, the president & CEO of the North Carolina Healthcare Association, said.

The North Carolina Healthcare Association supported the vaccination move and expects more health care systems and industries to do the same.

“In order for businesses to protect their workers and their patrons, this makes a lot of sense,” Lawler said. […]

Being that these are private employers, and being that North Carolina is a Right to Work state, requiring vaccination as a condition of employment is legal. As such, the reverse is also true: an employer that wished to hire only unvaccinated people could do so legally.

Of course, Governor Roy Cooper’s slyly developed state-certified vaccination card paved the way for such mandates to be easily enforced.

Still, private employers’ right to enforce mandates doesn’t give much comfort to those looking at this quickening trend and worrying about how far we’ll slide down the slippery slope. Beyond employees, some businesses are already screening customers and clients according to vaccination status. Universities are requiring vaccination to attend. When the FDA approves the vaccine for 5-12 year olds, the teachers unions and panic mongers will call for requiring all kids and staff get vaccinated in order to attend public school (no, schools do not require the flu vaccine).

Where does it end?

There was a time in which such developments – ostensibly reasonable requirements of healthcare workers, or prudent decisions by private employers — wouldn’t necessarily engender such strong fears of authoritarianism. These are not those times.

Instead, we lives in times in which we’ve witnessed a rapid breakdown of respect for core individual rights, a legitimization of mob actions, invasive government mandates, snitching neighbors, and aggressive enforcement of compliance with authority.

From that perspective, big private employers requiring vaccination is a big domino falling directly toward other, more massive and consequential dominoes.

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