Dec. 19, 2021 - Epoch Times
16:38
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| Good evening. | |
| Just yesterday, a federal judge over in New York, he granted an emergency injunction to a group of 17 hospital workers. | |
| This means that the state of New York is now officially blocked from enforcing the vaccine mandate against them. | |
| Meanwhile, also in New York, a hospital there has announced that they will no longer be delivering babies because too many of their unvaccinated staff members have decided to quit. | |
| But this is not a problem only affecting New York, because a CEO of a Texas hospital, he has likewise said that if the vaccine mandates go into effect, well, he will have to close down his entire facility. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And now let's begin today's discussion over in New York. | |
| Just yesterday, a federal judge granted an emergency injunction which officially blocked the state of New York from enforcing the new vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. | |
| Now, to give you a bit of background on this case, in case you don't remember... | |
| Exactly one month ago, back on August the 16th, Governor Andrew Cuomo, well, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, he announced a new vaccine mandate. | |
| That particular mandate required that all staff members at hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, etc., They must get vaccinated in order to remain employed. | |
| However, 17 medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, as well as a medical technician, all of whom, by the way, were facing possible termination, they filed a lawsuit saying that getting vaccinated went against their religious beliefs. | |
| According to this lawsuit, the plaintiffs, quote, Now, more specifically, these healthcare workers were arguing that this new vaccine mandate, it would nullify protections for sincerely held these healthcare workers were arguing that this new vaccine mandate, it would nullify protections for sincerely held religious beliefs that are granted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and it also violated their First and their Fourteenth | |
| In fact, here is how the attorney who is representing these workers, here's how he described the situation. | |
| What New York is attempting to do is to slam shut an escape hatch from an unconstitutional vaccine mandate. | |
| And they are doing this while knowing that many people have sincere religious objections to vaccines that were tested, developed, or produced with cell lines derived from aborted children. | |
| And then that attorney, he went one step further, and he said that beyond the issue of constitutionality, these mandates have the very real potential to create something like an American caste system. | |
| And that's exactly why in this lawsuit, the plaintiffs, they are actually identified only by pseudonyms. | |
| Here's how the lawyer describes this aspect of the case. | |
| They are vilified by the media as pariahs who must be excluded from society until they are vaccinated against their will. | |
| The new mandate emerges in the context of an atmosphere of fear and irrationality in which the unvaccinated are threatened with being reduced to a cast of untouchables if they will not consent to being injected with vaccines that violate their religious beliefs. | |
| And so, this case has been making its way through the court. | |
| And as we mentioned earlier in this episode, just yesterday, these plaintiffs scored an initial victory in this lawsuit. | |
| That's because the judge in the case, he granted a temporary restraining order, suspending the ability of New York State to enforce this mandate. | |
| Here is part of what that judge is ruling, again, issued just yesterday. | |
| Here's part of what it said, quote,"...the vaccine mandate is suspended, and the New York Department of Health is barred from taking any action... | |
| Disciplinary or otherwise, against the licensure, certification, residency, admitting privileges, or other professional status or qualification of any of the plaintiffs on account of their seeking or having obtained a religious exemption from the mandatory COVID vaccination. | |
| Now what's really worth mentioning here is that this injunction is a temporary injunction, meaning that it will be in effect while the case is actually going to be making its continuous way through the court system. | |
| It doesn't mean that the vaccine mandate has been suspended altogether indefinitely. | |
| It just means that while this case is still in effect, the state cannot enforce the mandate. | |
| And what's really interesting is that the lawyer who is representing the plaintiffs in this case, he was actually on the phone in an interview with one of our reporters here at the Epoch Times when he learned about this injunction. | |
| And so our reporter asked him whether he was pleased with the ruling, and the lawyer laughed and said... | |
| Are you kidding me? | |
| By the way, he said that in a positive way, meaning that he is pleased. | |
| Now, if you would like to read more about this particular case, including the full text of the lawsuit or the ruling that was just handed out by the judge yesterday, I'll throw all that into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now, would you like to hear something funny? | |
| Well, we were supposed to have a new sponsor for today's episode. | |
| However, even though the contract was already signed, and even though we had already both filmed and edited the commercial, at the very last minute, literally just last night, that company, it backed out. | |
| They canceled their contract due to what they called a brand safety concern, which is just a catch-all term. | |
| Now, me personally, I've worked here at the Epoch Times for over nine years now, and I've seen this type of thing play out many, many, many, many times. | |
| We've had contracts signed, advertising contracts that were signed, and then something mysterious would happen. | |
| For instance, in many cases, the local Chinese Communist consulate, they would call up a business or some marketing agency, and they would say, hey, if you advertise with the Epoch Times, that could hurt your business prospects in China. | |
| And then the company would subsequently call us the next day and cancel their contract. | |
| And so we've been dealing with this kind of thing for a very long time. | |
| In fact, we've been dealing with this type of thing before the term cancel culture made its way into the popular vernacular. | |
| In fact, we here at the Epoch Times, we actually did a fairly thorough investigation into this type of thing, and it was titled, The Spy in the Ad Agency. | |
| And it detailed not only how the Chinese Communist Party uses ad agencies to To punish media outlets like ours, which report critically, but also how China's operatives have infiltrated their way into these advertising agencies in order to steal American proprietary information. | |
| Now, in regards to this particular company which canceled their contract on us just yesterday... | |
| Well, it's unclear what the real reason was. | |
| I mean, a brand safety issue could mean anything. | |
| It could have been China. | |
| Maybe some other woke organization reached out to them. | |
| Or maybe internally they just have some individuals who don't like our content. | |
| Maybe they don't like some of the facts that we have reported on. | |
| Regardless, it doesn't really matter. | |
| For me at least, all it does is... | |
| It makes me appreciate more the companies that do sponsor our program because those companies, they're truly run by patriots who are willing to sponsor a channel like ours. | |
| Now let's get back to the topic of the vaccine mandates. | |
| Specifically, since we're discussing New York hospitals, let's talk about another issue. | |
| The issue of what these mandates are actually leading to. | |
| For example, a hospital over in upstate New York, they have just announced that they will stop delivering babies due to the fact that they don't have the manpower. | |
| Now, why exactly do they have a shortage of manpower? | |
| Well, that's because after the vaccine mandate was issued, six of their employees over in the maternity ward, they decided to quit, rather than to take the vaccine against their will. | |
| And then another seven employees, also in that same maternity ward, they are unvaccinated, but they have yet to make a decision as to whether they'll quit or not. | |
| And because of this shortage, the hospital decided to stop delivering babies altogether. | |
| Now specifically, this is happening over in the Lewis County General Hospital over in upstate New York, and here is what their CEO said in a statement: "If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to re-engage in delivering babies here in Lewis County." Now, during this same statement, the CEO of this hospital also mentioned that this issue is not only confined to the maternity ward. | |
| That's because, in total, about 165 of his hospital employees have yet to get vaccinated, which is about 27% of his workforce. | |
| Here's what he said in this front. | |
| Our hope is as we get closer to the deadline, the numbers will increase of individuals who are vaccinated. | |
| Fewer individuals will leave, and maybe, with a little luck, some of those who have resigned will reconsider. | |
| And for your reference, by the way, the deadline that he's referring to is September the 27th. | |
| That was the deadline that was set by Andrew Cuomo when he first issued the vaccine mandate. | |
| And furthermore, the CEO said that this problem is not only confined to his hospital alone, but it's actually something that is happening across the entire state of New York. | |
| Here's what he said. | |
| We are not alone. | |
| There are thousands of positions that are open north of the Thruway, which is a highway system over in New York, and now we have a challenge to work through, you know, with the vaccination mandate. | |
| Now, what he's alluding to there is the fact that this problem existed even prior to the mandate. | |
| There were thousands of positions that were open. | |
| And now it's just being exacerbated because not only are more positions going to become open as people are leaving or they have to get fired due to the vaccine mandates, but also the available pool of people who can be hired is smaller because you can now no longer essentially hire unvaccinated individuals. | |
| And also, if we look ahead, this problem is likely only going to get bigger. | |
| Not only here in New York, but also across the entire country. | |
| That's because last week, Joe Biden made an announcement wherein he said that healthcare workers at all facilities that receive either Medicaid or Medicare funding have to get vaccinated, with no exceptions. | |
| And according to official estimates, this order, that ordered by Joe Biden, will apply to approximately 50,000 employees. | |
| And so this problem goes well beyond New York State alone. | |
| For example, just two days ago down in Texas, the CEO of a hospital said that if Joe Biden's vaccine mandates go into effect, he will likely have to close his facility. | |
| Specifically, he told a local news outlet that 20% of my, no, probably 20-25% of my staff will have to go away if that's the case. | |
| He said that the reason for that is because being a hospital in a rural area, many of his patients rely on things like Medicaid, and therefore his hospital falls under the purview of Joe Biden's new mandate. | |
| Here's specifically what that CEO said on this front. | |
| It's huge in our rural community, as all the other rural communities. | |
| We all have high poverty levels and stuff like that, so there is a lot of Medicaid usage in our communities. | |
| However, you might listen to that and say, hey, if he is forced to fire 25% of his staff and close down shop potentially, why does he not just stop accepting Medicare and Medicaid altogether? | |
| Well, that is not so simple. | |
| Because according to another CEO of another hospital in rural Texas, he said that that would be devastating. | |
| Here's specifically what that CEO said. | |
| Well, it would be devastating for the community. | |
| Frankly, we have a large percentage of our revenue that comes from Medicare, Medicaid, and those kinds of products. | |
| And so, these hospitals in rural communities, they are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. | |
| Because it looks like what's happening is that between 20-30% of their employees are now vaccinated, while at the same time they receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. | |
| And so, they will either have to fire their employees and potentially shut down, or stop accepting Medicare and Medicaid and not receive enough funding, and then also shut down. | |
| So, this is the situation that they find themselves in. | |
| And what's interesting to note here is that while the CEO of that hospital over in Texas, he supports the vaccines, he thinks that these mandates are a terrible idea, which actually won't work. | |
| Here's specifically what he said. | |
| I think the mandate is just a terrible message because if the vaccinations are working, why do you have to mandate people to get the vaccines? | |
| What happens to individual choice and medical decisions between the patient and their doctor, which is all of the things that we're trying to support. | |
| Now, what's really, really worth mentioning here is that the problems that we're discussing in the setting of hospitals, well, they go well beyond the health industry. | |
| That's because, as we discussed in a previous episode, Joe Biden's administration will also be pushing American businesses, all American businesses with over 100 employees, to force their workers to get vaccinated. | |
| And that vaccine mandate will apply to over 80 million people across the country. | |
| And so just imagine for a moment, with the current hiring situation that we're already seeing in this country, with help-wanted signs posted on every other business in almost every large city and small town across America, the federal government is about to make a large swath of the U.S. population not even eligible to be hired, at least for many, many jobs. | |
| And ironically, if you want to discuss this issue from a social justice perspective, well, when you break down the data by race, this type of mandate will affect black people the most, since almost 60% of black people are not vaccinated, meaning that very soon they will be eligible to be fired, while at the same time being ineligible to be hired at many, many companies. | |
| However, as we also mentioned in our previous episode, there is now a concerted legal effort to fight back against these vaccine mandates that are bubbling up from 27 different states across the country. | |
| And what these legal challenges are actually looking like is beginning to crystallize. | |
| For example, Mark Brunovich, who is the Attorney General of Arizona, he has already filed a lawsuit against the vaccine mandate, making the argument that it violates the Equal Protections Clause of the U.S. Constitution. | |
| Specifically, his argument is that, quote, And what Mark Brunovich said does, in fact, appear to be the case. | |
| Because very soon, in the very near future, when these vaccine mandates go into effect, It won't matter whether you are a worker who works at a company that has over 100 employees, which again, in this country is over 80 million people, or if you're a student going either to high school or definitely to college or university, you will be required to be vaccinated. | |
| However, if you're a migrant who's illegally crossing into this country, you won't be required to be vaccinated. | |
| Now, you might be asking yourself, well, how do we know that fact? | |
| Well, check out this exchange between Peter Doocy, who is a reporter for Fox News, And Jen Psaki, who is the White House Press Secretary. | |
| And notice that she answers his question in the affirmative, but she does not give any actual explanation. | |
| Take a listen. | |
| Requirement for people at a business with more than 100 people, it is not a requirement for migrants at the southern border. | |
| Why? | |
| That's correct. | |
| Now, besides that argument, the other governors and attorney generals in the other states, they said that they are waiting until the Department of Labor actually issues the new rule, at which point they will be able to form their legal arguments. | |
| For instance, we here at the Epoch Times got a chance to speak with the governor of Nebraska, and here's what he told us. | |
| The U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA will have to promulgate regulations on this, and then we will have a better idea of how to attack this from a legal standpoint. | |
| And so, we'll just have to wait and see how it all transpires. | |
| If you would like to read about anything that we've discussed thus far in today's episode, including the statements from the hospitals both in New York and Texas, all that will be found in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now lastly, as I've already mentioned in several previous episodes, on the same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program, maybe also because there was a brand safety issue. | |
| We can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been mysteriously disabled. | |
| And I say mysteriously because on the back end, we have been appealing and have never gotten a definitive answer for why they demonetized our content. | |
| However, we here at the Epoch Times, we did not take this line down, and instead we created something very cool. | |
| It's called Epic TV. It's our brand new, no censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times video programs like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Life and Times, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, as well as our program Facts Matter, which we post exclusive content that you can only find over on Epic TV. And also, as I mentioned on several previous episodes, we have an awesome, awesome new documentary series called The Dark Origins of Communism. | |
| Which explores the theoretical underpinnings of this ideology, as well as how it has infiltrated almost every facet of American society, as well as all societies throughout the entire world. | |
| If you want to check out that documentary or all the other awesome programs, I'll throw a link to that at the very top of the description box. | |
| I hope you check it out, hope you click, hope you subscribe, and hope you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honest journalism that is grounded in truth and tradition. | |
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| And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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