With a growing number of hospitals and other health-care providers mandating the Covid19 vaccine for their workers, a growing number of people are trying to blame these mandates for projected staff shortages. In Syracuse, NY an editorial appeared on a local news site blaming the state’s Covid19 vaccine requirement for health-care providers for a staff shortage that will lead to the closure of 13 operating rooms in the system. In San Francisco, local Sheriffs deputies also threatened to quit over a vaccine requirement.
While dealing with staff shortages can be difficult, the only appropriate response to these kinds of challenges is to look the people threatening to quit right in the eye, and tell them “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out!”
Health-care providers and police officers are supposed to serve the public. They should have an understanding of how pandemics work, and how viral illnesses spread. They should have enough of a sense of empathy and concern for the well-being of others that they wouldn’t even consider trying to do their jobs without having the Covid19 vaccine. They should also be people of stable temperament, and capable of recognizing the difference between credible health information, and agitative propaganda. Put simply: people who are so beholden to right-wing propaganda that they believe all the anti-vax and anti-mask propaganda that’s in circulation right now are not well regulated in their temperament, and have no business being public servants.
While it is difficult putting up with the staff shortages that result from purging those who are not fit to serve as health-care workers or firefighters due to their radicalized political beliefs, it is still an essential step.
Political radicalization is associated with a propensity for low effort though, including sub-par critical thinking skills and a propensity for physical violence. Organizations that make the effort to purge MAGA staff members are likely to find that in the long run, they’ll be far better off for the effort. Health-care facilities may find that they end up with far fewer cases of medication errors and readmissions due to preventable infections, and police departments are likely to find they’re better able to develop a solid rapport with their communities, and enjoy a substantial reduction in excessive use of force complaints against their officers.
If anything, the ability to Covid19 vaccine requirements as an opportunity purge their workforces of these sub-par employees should be seen as a blessing for America’s health-care providers and police departments.