BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Newly elected Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy and House Republicans want healthcare workers who were fired for being unvaccinated to get their jobs back.
“The COVID emergency is over,” Langworthy said in a news conference Monday. “Our healthcare workers have been handed pink slips and fired because they didn’t fall in line and get vaccinated.”
New York has had a vaccine mandate since 2021 for all healthcare workers in the state, and those who chose not to get the shot were terminated.
“The heroes who were celebrated for being on the front lines during the height of the pandemic were later treated like trash and thrown out on the street because they decided they were the ones to make their own medical decisions,” Langworthy said.
Earlier this month, a State Supreme Court Judge ruled the mandate unconstitutional, saying the Governor and Department of Health overstepped their role in mandating COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers.
Because of the suit, an unvaccinated healthcare worker can apply for a new job and work in healthcare, but Governor Hochul says those unvaccinated workers who were fired will not be reinstated.
“I don’t think the answer is to have someone who comes in who is sick be exposed to someone who can give them COVID-19,” Hochul said last week. “I don’t know that that’s the right answer in fact I’m pretty sure it’s not so we’re exploring our options.”
Langworthy and House Republicans have pointed to the state’s overwhelming healthcare staffing shortages, many say they were brought on by these very mandates.
Republicans say healthcare workers need to get back to work, regardless of vaccination status, and have launched the Freedom for Healthcare Workers Act.
“We will eliminate the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers under certain federal programs,” said Langworthy.
Hochul last week saying this:
“I cannot put people in harms way. When you go into a healthcare facility, you do not want to come out sicker then when you went in. I think that’s something every New Yorker would expect.”
