Legacy Health employees tell us hundreds of healthcare workers were denied their #COVID19 vaccine exemption.
They were emailed Monday. One respiratory therapist, Coleman Nagy, shared his letter with us.
How is the health system determining which exemptions will be honored:
If your exemption didn't meet the consistency/specificity criteria, your request was denied.
Nagy told: "your request was carefully reviewed and your request for religious exemption was denied because the information you provided does not meet one or more of the criteria.”
Another employee, Arnhild “Hildi” Espino, a vascular access specialist at Mt. Hood M.C. also had an exemption denied.
Hildi & Coleman submitted religious exemptions (below).
Hildi est. ~400-800 employees had their requests denied.
She's appealing the exemption process.
.@OurLegacyHealth is defending it's process/the exemption work group, saying "“Legacy has completed a thorough review of all employee requests for medical or religious exceptions...Legacy’s number one priority is patient and employee safety."
@OurLegacyHealth Legacy is now preparing to deal with the major hit to staffing levels.
"In anticipation of the potential impact to our staffing, Legacy has developed a series of contingency plans across all of our facilities to minimize the effect on patient care.”
@OurLegacyHealth .@OregonNurses: Legacy is worsening staffing crisis with "blanket rejections."
ONA: "A small number of nurses have legit. reasons for filing exemption requests. ONA believes that hospital systems must take these exemption requests seriously, as required by state & federal law."
Hildi is non-denominational Christian.
"I believe that my body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and I am therefore a product of that, and by putting something into my body that wasn’t meant to be is defiling my body."
Hildi also has concerns over the use of fetal cells in the making of vaccines, but several religious leaders, even those of who oppose abortion, are pro-vaccine.
That includes Pope Francis: vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…
And LDS leaders: newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church…
Leaders with the National Association of Evangelicals & Orthodox Unions also wrote a joint editorial on the vaccine:
"These are very hard times. Americans need a shot in the arm. Let us work together to make sure they get it."
northjersey.com/story/opinion/…
Here's more info on the fetal cells used:
sharedsystems.dhsoha.state.or.us/DHSForms/Serve…
The cells are from the 70s/80s.
"Producing vaccines that rely on these cell lines does not require new abortions, because the cells
reproduce themselves indefinitely in the laboratory."
A LOT more info on fetus cell lines:
“the vaccines themselves do not contain any aborted fetal cells.”
"How does a religious exemption hold up when you have these leaders at the top saying vaccination is our way out of this?"
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