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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Some hospitals and nursing homes in New York began removing workers Monday for failing to meet a state-mandated deadline to get a COVID-19 vaccine as Gov. Kathy Hochul pleaded with holdouts to get 11th-hour inoculations.
It was not clear Monday if a wave of suspensions and terminations of healthcare workers who refused be inoculated would cause dramatic staff shortages. Hochul said workers had until the end of the day Monday to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as required.
"To those who have not yet made that decision, please do the right thing," Hochul said at a press briefing. "A lot of your employers are anxious to just give you the jab in the arm and say you're part of the family, we need your help to continue on."
The rules apply not just to people like doctors and nurses, but also to others who work in health care institutions, like food service workers, administrators and cleaners. Employees who refuse the shots face suspensions and termination. And workers terminated because of refusal to be vaccinated are not eligible for unemployment insurance without a doctor-approved request for medical accommodation.
Hochul has held firm on the mandate in the face of pleas to delay it and multiple lawsuits, insisting that the state needs to protect vulnerable patients.
Some holdouts say vaccination should be a personal choice.
"I really got to a point where if I got it, I would be disgusted with myself for being strong-armed into it. Just morally, I feel like it would put me in a bad place of self-loathing," said Jessica Bond, who was a physical therapy assistant at the Brothers of Mercy nursing home in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence.
Her last day was Friday.
Bond, who feared side effects from the shot, said she worked extra shifts during the pandemic to help fill gaps after a lot of her co-workers quit.
"So it kind of is a kick in the face now to be going through all this, because it's like, well, I was good enough then," said Bond, who was part of an unsuccessful legal challenge to the mandate.
She plans to start a home cleaning business.
The Erie County Medical Center Corporation in Buffalo said about 5% of its hospital workforce has been put on unpaid leave due the mandate, along with 20% of staff at its nursing home. The state's largest health care provider, Northwell Health, said about two dozen unvaccinated employees it characterized as leaders were "exited from the system," and that they would begin that process for the rest of the unvaccinated staff. A spokesperson declined to clarify.