Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem placed 80 of its employees who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID on unpaid leave, Haaretz reported on Monday.
The hospital has set up an exemptions committee for employees who have a justified reason for not being vaccinated but these 80 employees, including doctors and nurses and administrative employees, have no medical justification for not being vaccinated, the report said.
Hadassah said that one nurse who refused to be vaccinated was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Sunday night and all her patients, who are children, had to be placed in isolation.
Last week, Hadassah CEO Zeev Rotstein banned medical personnel at the hospital who haven’t been vaccinated from treating patients unless they had a medical justification for not doing so.
“The administration is obliged to inform each and every one of you that the administration can’t provide the unvaccinated public with a working environment that’s protected against the coronavirus,” Rotstein wrote.
Rotstein added that Hadassah “will not provide legal defense or insurance coverage for future lawsuits against a staffer who, by his decision not to be vaccinated, caused direct or indirect harm to anyone.”
Rotstein said earlier this month that the rights of the patients must come before the rights of the employees who refuse vaccination.
Another Haaretz report said the Israeli Medical School Deans Forum announced on Sunday that Israeli medical students and students in other healthcare fields will be prohibited from taking part in clinical training in hospitals and other healthcare settings unless they have been vaccinated against COVID.
Unvaccinated students will also not be allowed to do rounds in hospitals. The Forum has warned that unvaccinated students could miss over a year of schooling.
The dean’s letter follows a Health Ministry directive last week banning unvaccinated students from working with immunosuppressed patients in hospitals or clinics or with coronavirus patients.
“The moment unvaccinated students enter a ward or a clinic, it’s impossible to keep them away from different groups of patients,” said Prof. Ehud Grossman, the dean of Tel Aviv University’s medical school. “That’s not realistic.”
“What this directive means in practice is that an unvaccinated student won’t be able to enter clinical fields,” he added. “The hospitals themselves have already realized this, and many have started to remove unvaccinated students from the wards.”
“People have the right to refuse vaccination and they can’t be forced, but this means there are things they can’t do,” Grossman continued. “When you’re someone who’s supposed to treat patients and you’re unvaccinated, you endanger the patients.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Found a spellcheck mistake so reposting:
Time for “yellow stars”!
Must mark those individuals who dare to BE FREE and believe in INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS!
After all, all sheep must follow the herd!
BS”D
May the doctors and nurses who refuse to vaccinate go from strength to strength.
May they be an inspiration to others.
The covid decrees would end if most people ignored them.
WHAT AN IDIOT! NO-ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO ENDANGER OTHERS. YOU DON’T WANT VACCINATION? STAY AT HOME AND KEEP AWAY FROM OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.
The medical community is very clear that vaccination does not prevent coronavirus infection in the individual nor does it reduce the spread to others. It only (greatly) decreases the severity of symptoms in the vaccinated.
Allowing the non-vaccinated to work in a hospital is no more of a danger than letting the vaccinated work in a hospital.
Individual rights don’t always take precedence over the rights of the community. Let them go find a hospital to work at that will let them work without being vaccinated. I doubt they’ll find such a place.
The hospital clearly stated that these employees had the right and Freedom to refuse the vaccine. The hospital didn’t have them arrested. They were just laid off since the hospital is just exercising its right to protect its patients.
Yes, Kach, you can BE FREE and have your INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, but the sick patient in the hospital ALSO has INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, and you can’t force your RIGHTS onto them..
There is no individual right in Judaism to risk others’ lives.
In fact, Judaism isn’t really about rights; it is about obligations.
We clearly have trolls here who get their Torah through Ayn Rand not Moshe Rabbeinu. And it is the anti-vaxxers who are trying to create more dead Jews.
@Kach: Yes, you can BE FREE but NOT by ENDANGERING others!