Since Maine and New York have terminated countless health care workers due to the unlawful COVID shot mandates, the two governors have now activated members of the National Guard to help alleviate the shortages at hospitals and health care facilities. Some media attribute these drastic actions to the surge of COVID cases. However, lest people forget, both governors said they would deploy the National Guard to fill the vacancies their unlawful mandates created. Both governors mandated that all health care workers get the COVID shots and directed employers to deny all religious exemptions claims or face fines and revocation of their business licenses.
Make no mistake, the shortage of health care workers and the current health care crisis is caused by Maine Governor Janet Mills and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. These two governors are directly responsible for the current mess. In 2019 before COVID, Maine already faced a shortage of health care workers.
The restrictions both governors have imposed on their respective states are not working. Compare instead to the example set by Florida, which has been wide open since September 2020, and now has the lowest COVID rate per capita than any other state.
Governor Mills ignored federal law by removing religious exemptions and accommodations from unlawful shot mandates for health care workers and created a situation where no religious objectors to the injection can obtain employment in the state. Gov. Mills ordered employers to disobey the federal law known as Title VII that prohibits religious discrimination.
Now Gov. Mills announced yesterday that she has activated additional members of the Maine National Guard “to address the increasing strain on hospitals and to maintain access to inpatient health care services.” Mills signed a directive activating up to 75 additional members of the National Guard who will be used in non-clinical support roles to expand capacity at health care facilities…and who will be used in non-clinical support roles to expand capacity at health care facilities by providing support to nursing facilities and swing bed units that accept patients discharged from hospitals experiencing critical care capacity challenges.”
On August 16, 2021, New York Gov. Hochul announced that the state will require health care workers to accept or receive one of the three currently available COVID-19 injections to remain employed in the health care profession. The deadline for them to become fully vaccinated was Monday, September 27, 2021, for hospital employees and October 7, 2021 for other facilities. Then on September 27, Governor Hochul signed an executive order declaring a statewide disaster emergency which allows unlicensed health care workers from other states and countries “to practice in New York State without civil or criminal penalty related to lack of licensure.”
During a press conference Gov. Hochul said, this executive order “allows me to address the shortages that occur to deploy the National Guard who are medically trained, deploy people who may be retired and had a license lapse, and bring in people from elsewhere.” Hochul admitted her forced injection mandates will “impact the availability of care, threatening public health and safety.”
This week, the New York National Guard announced that it had deployed 120 medics and medical technicians to a dozen long-term care facilities statewide in response the governor’s December 1 order in response to staffing shortages.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The governors of Maine and New York are to blame for the current health care shortages. Both governors have abused their health care heroes and should be held responsible. Calling up the National Guard will not solve the health care crisis. Mills and Hochul openly ignored the law and forced employers to terminate those health care workers who have sincere religious beliefs against these COVID shots. The heavy hand abuse by these governors is immoral and unlawful. They have now created a crisis in their health care system.”
