SAN DIEGO — San Diego hospitals that provided employee vaccination numbers show overwhelming the majority of their staff has been vaccinated, but as for the small group that has not, they risk being terminated. At Rady Children's Hospital, some health care workers plan to rally on Friday to support vaccine choice instead of the blanket vaccine mandates.
"We're kind of running down the last, final numbers to decide just how many employees have to be terminated because they chose not to be vaccinated,” said Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder.
As California's vaccination mandate deadline for health care workers arrives, gathering the health care headcount of vaccinated employees wasn't a steep challenge for Van Gorder as 98% of Scripps doctors are vaccinated.
"If this were an election, it would be a landslide in terms of who won, vaccinations win,” Van Gorder said.
Scripps Health said only a half percent of all its 16,508 employees are unvaccinated, and 541 received exemptions for medical, pregnancy and religious reasons.
"All these exemptions that we have given are temporary, and the employees know that like for example, pregnancy does not last forever, and for those moms, who are on leave now, once they come back to work. they will have to be vaccinated,” Van Gorder said.
For Sharp Healthcare -
92% (91.7%) of 18,246 employees are vaccinated.
691 (3.8%) are exempt (religious or medical reasons);
292 (1.6%) are partially vaccinated and
539 (3.0%) employees remain unvaccinated.
Kaiser Permanente, in a statement, said:
“About 97 percent of employees have responded with either vaccination verification or request for exemption – and the number continues to grow.”
The California Nurses Association also said in a statement:
“We strongly believe all eligible people should be vaccinated, while respecting the need for medical and religious accommodations. We know employers can encourage vaccination by offering easily accessible, on-site shots, and paid time off to get vaccinated and to help employees deal with potential side effects.”
America’s Healthcare Workers for Medical Freedom will hold a rally Friday outside Rady Children's Hospital from 2 to 4 p.m. to support vaccine choice and not a mandate.
WATCH RELATED: California requires health care workers to be fully vaccinated (Aug. 2021)