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There's one nurse that I work with who is seven months pregnant. | ||
And this nurse actually wants the vaccine. | ||
She said, I want the vaccine. | ||
I'll get the vaccine. | ||
Just wait until I have my baby and I will come back vaccinated. | ||
And she was forced to resign because they said no. | ||
At seven months pregnant, this is someone who actually wanted it. | ||
And they're holding the line and says, no, you're not going to be here come September 27th. | ||
And she resigned in lieu of being fired so she can keep some benefits there. | ||
But she was forced out. | ||
You know, I've been telling you guys that my inbox is absolutely blowing up from people reaching out to me about losing their jobs or potentially losing their jobs because of these vaccine mandates. | ||
I'm hearing from people in the healthcare field, I'm hearing from airline workers, people just across the economy, across the country. | ||
And I wanted to start interviewing a couple of the people that are speaking out against this. | ||
And I saw a tweet from this guy that I'm about to introduce to you. | ||
He is a frontline ER nurse, former EMT, and current congressional candidate in New York's 3rd District. | ||
Kevin Serdy, welcome to The Rubin Report. | ||
Thank you so much for having me. | ||
It's an honor to be here. | ||
Kevin, I mentioned to you right before we started, New York's third district. | ||
I'm homegrown Syosset, man. | ||
That means my parents are in what could potentially be your district. | ||
What do you want people to know about you and why you're running before we get to the specifics on vaccines and all that? | ||
Yeah. | ||
So I'm running to really bring back representation to the district. | ||
And as a congressman, your title is representative. | ||
And I feel they have completely lost sight of that. | ||
And a lot of them are running for, you know, keep themselves in office and they run for the title and the position of congressman. | ||
And they've completely lost sight of what their job really is. | ||
And that's to represent the people that voted them in. | ||
And I'm running on a term limits platform as well, which will limit that availability to turn it into a career. | ||
Because I see Congress as a service to your country. | ||
It's not a career to get yourself rich. | ||
Okay, so I just mentioned my inbox is just crazy with people reaching out to me, wanting their stories to be heard, just telling me about all sorts of awful things, having to make the choice between basically being fired or going against their conscience related to the vaccines. | ||
But I saw a tweet from you. | ||
This is why I reached out to you specifically. | ||
You sent this just a couple of days ago. | ||
I'm an ER nurse on Long Island. | ||
I'm pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. | ||
In my department, four nurses either resigned or will be fired due to the mandates. | ||
24 administrators have been fired. | ||
Another five were forced against their will to get the shot. | ||
This mandate will destroy hospitals. | ||
Okay, so that's what's happening to you in Long Island. | ||
Obviously, this is close to my heart. | ||
Well, first, do you mind if I ask what hospital? | ||
I work for Northwell, one of the larger hospitals. | ||
unidentified
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Okay. | |
It's just on Long Island. | ||
Gotcha. | ||
So now that in mind, we also have the governor of New York, who nobody voted for, who in essence is firing 83,000 healthcare workers, the people we were told are the heroes. | ||
They are going to be replaced by the National Guard if they so choose not to get The vaccine. | ||
So I'll let you unpack that tweet, but to start, you're saying you're pro-vaccine, you're anti-mandate. | ||
So do you want to clean that up a little bit? | ||
Absolutely. | ||
And I myself, I'm vaccinated. | ||
I got both my shots and my family got their shots. | ||
All my friends got it. | ||
And I think the vaccine does help limit the symptoms of COVID if you get it. | ||
So it does prevent ICU stays. | ||
It does work. | ||
The problem is it doesn't prevent you from spreading the virus. | ||
So the vaccine that I got, it is a risk. | ||
Any vaccine we take, any medicine, any medical procedure, there's always risks to it. | ||
And understanding those risks, I got the vaccine. | ||
And I would encourage people to get the vaccine. | ||
However, it's not a perfect vaccine yet. | ||
This thing cannot stop transmission. | ||
It can't stop you from getting COVID, which the CDC also just said the other day. | ||
We can't be firing people that choose not to get the vaccine. | ||
Thankfully, my wife was pregnant during this, and we chose not to get her the vaccine while she was pregnant. | ||
After she gave birth, we gave her the vaccine. | ||
But what if my wife was a nurse? | ||
My wife would be forced to either get the vaccine while you're pregnant or fired, and thankfully at the time, we had the opportunity of that choice, and that choice is not being offered today. | ||
So I'm pro-vaccine. | ||
I just don't think anybody should be fired if they think they don't want the vaccine at this time. | ||
You know, bizarrely on the pregnancy front, you may have seen the head of the CDC, Walensky, just a couple days ago saying, oh, it's completely fine for pregnant women and for breastfeeding women, et cetera, et cetera, except there's simply no way they could have that data yet. | ||
It's too soon. | ||
And if we look at following the science, we're all scientists. | ||
We have degrees. | ||
We've been doing this for over 20 years. | ||
Data takes time. | ||
This has only been, you know, six, eight months. | ||
Some of these women that have had the vaccine and given birth, it's not long enough for us to see the effects of it, of what's happening. | ||
And there have been so many FDA-approved drugs and treatments in the past that we're realizing now are not safe. | ||
And they have recalls. | ||
And it's just too soon to be mandated. | ||
It's got to be a choice at this point. | ||
When you mention some of the nurses and administrators that you know that now are either being forced to step down or ultimately will be fired, or in essence, they're furloughed, so you just don't have to go to work, but you don't get paid, so you're fired by any reasonable estimation. | ||
What have their rationalities been as to why they're not getting vaccinated? | ||
It ranges. | ||
There's one nurse that I work with who is seven months pregnant. | ||
And this nurse actually wants the vaccine. | ||
She said, I want the vaccine. | ||
I'll get the vaccine. | ||
Just wait until I have my baby and I will come back vaccinated. | ||
And she was forced to resign because they said no. | ||
At seven months pregnant, this is someone who actually wanted it. | ||
And they're holding the line and says, no, you're not going to be here come September 27th. | ||
And she resigned in lieu of being fired so she can keep some benefits there. | ||
But she was forced out. | ||
We have another great colleague of mine who's in her 30s. | ||
She's had a stroke already. | ||
She's blind in one eye, had open heart surgery. | ||
And we know that there is a very small risk, but the risk is there, of blood clots with the vaccine. | ||
And she said, I'm not taking that risk. | ||
I'm already blind in one eye. | ||
I don't want to be blind in another eye if I get this clot and I'm predispositioned to have a stroke. | ||
And this is somebody who's a nurse. | ||
She knows what she's talking about. | ||
And she was fired. | ||
We have others on religious beliefs and others who just don't know. | ||
They've had COVID, they have the antibodies. | ||
And the whole purpose to get the vaccine is to give you antibodies. | ||
So we're a little confused. | ||
If you already have natural antibodies, why are you giving me another shot to have antibodies | ||
and then requiring me to get multiple boosters? | ||
So it's really- - Have you guys, yeah. | ||
Have you brought that, sorry to interrupt. | ||
Have you guys brought that up with administrators? | ||
I mean, I get that sort of, it's just going down the chain and everyone's just like, well, they told me to do it and you told me to do it and we're going to do it. | ||
But when you bring that up about the natural antibody thing, which nobody seems to want to discuss, you know, Fauci and the head of the CDC and everything else, what are the administrators saying to you guys? | ||
The administrators are saying they're following the CDC protocol, and they're not going back to us with the science that we know that they have. | ||
You know, a lot of these administrators are doctors and nurses. | ||
And this isn't a nursing thing. | ||
This is spread out to pharmacists and doctors and nurses. | ||
It's all throughout health care of multiple people wanting the vaccine or not wanting it. | ||
And the majority of them have already had COVID. | ||
They've tested positive through blood work that they have antibodies. | ||
And they're being told, no, you still have to get the shot. | ||
And that's what we're really fighting. | ||
And I'm trying to represent a whole group here because it doesn't make sense. | ||
If we're giving you a shot to give you antibodies, but you already have antibodies, | ||
which has also been proven to be more likely at stopping you from getting the virus | ||
if you have natural antibodies than the synthetic ones from the vaccine. | ||
When you hear sort of the trusted, quote unquote trusted class and the media people | ||
talk about COVID yet not bring up natural antibodies, not bring up some of the other remedies for COVID, | ||
You know, we're not allowed to talk about some of this stuff. | ||
It's like, what are you guys thinking? | ||
Like, are you shocked that suddenly medicine is not allowed to be talked about, that certain remedies are not allowed to be talked about? | ||
Well, any government should employ, they should not be dictating how medicine should work. | ||
You know, we're the people that, they've gone to medical school, we've gone to nursing school, we've gone to pharmacy school, we know what we're talking about, we know how to treat this. | ||
They should not be telling us what we should be doing, what we can't be doing, and it's not based on science. | ||
We're not seeing if there's any data behind this, so we can only allude that this is some kind of a power grab, or there's money behind it, there's some other reason, because it's not the science. | ||
We're trying to follow the science of it, and they're telling us not to. | ||
If I would have said to you a year ago at the height of COVID, you know, let's say, or even a little more than a year ago, year and a half ago, it's now May of 2020, something like that. | ||
If I would have said to you, you know, in a year and a half from now, half of your friends and colleagues are gonna be stepping down or forced out or fired because they didn't take a vaccine. | ||
What do you think you would have said when at that time you guys were the greatest heroes of all time? | ||
I probably would have left. | ||
And it says no way that's possible to happen. | ||
When we were in this, the thick of it, we didn't have enough PPE to wear. | ||
And mine, myself, was wearing the same mask for weeks on end. | ||
And before COVID, that mask was supposed to be worn one patient at a time. | ||
You wear it, you take it off, you throw it in the garbage, you get a new one. | ||
And we were wearing this for weeks at the same time. | ||
I haven't had one of the straps break on a mask. | ||
I was told just tie it together. | ||
So we went through a lot of sacrifice, and it's a risk that we all knew we were taking. | ||
We were in healthcare. | ||
That's what we do. | ||
We're first responders, and any of us would do it again immediately without any hesitation. | ||
And we're still doing it. | ||
We're still treating COVID patients, many vaccinated COVID patients as well. | ||
And for them to say you're going to be fired for not getting a vaccine after everything we just went through, it's mind boggling. | ||
And where I'm really sticking on why this doesn't make sense, because we are in a health care pandemic. | ||
We are in a national nursing shortage. | ||
Right now, currently today, before a lot of people even being fired or terminated, I get text messages every single day all across Long Island begging for overtime. | ||
Come in. | ||
We need help. | ||
$250 extra to come in. | ||
If you lose just one or two providers, you are going to devastate that department. | ||
We're already short-staffed. | ||
So if you're going to fire more people, I don't understand how that's better. | ||
Because me personally, I'd much rather get treated by an unvaccinated person with antibodies than being treated by nobody at all. | ||
And there's going to be a time where you're going to come to that hospital and your care is going to be delayed because there are not going to be enough people to care for you. | ||
Right, and by the way, do we even have any numbers, or do you know of any numbers of, at the peak of this thing, unvaccinated healthcare workers that were somehow infecting people at hospitals? | ||
Have they done any studies on that that you know of? | ||
Not to my knowledge, and I highly doubt it. | ||
And a lot of us got COVID during the peak of it. | ||
And you're out for two, three weeks, and you're fine. | ||
You're right back. | ||
Yes, it was devastating. | ||
A lot of people did die. | ||
I held the hands of dying patients. | ||
It was a lot to deal with in the hospitals. | ||
But there's a high survivability rate. | ||
Personally, in one of the hospital systems, we did lose a few healthcare workers, but the majority of them were fine. | ||
And if they got COVID, they got the antibodies, and they're still working currently today, Why are we forcing this vaccine on them, even though we think the vaccine does work and it limits your symptoms? | ||
But a lot of people have very legitimate reasons, like I spoke about, to not get this vaccine. | ||
Why are we firing these people? | ||
Yeah, it just doesn't make sense that we need health care professionals right now more than ever. | ||
Yeah. | ||
For short staff, it doesn't make sense. | ||
For some of my audience that may be hesitant and as I have said completely from the beginning the entire time it's I believe the same position you're taking which is that you have to make the right choice for yourself and you should consult with your doctor and your age and your health and your diet and all of those things should matter. | ||
If someone's hesitant do you have a recommendation on which one they should take or just anything on that side of things? | ||
Be more of a conversation between them and their doctor. | ||
There hasn't really been too much to prove one's better than the other. | ||
Personally, I had Moderna. | ||
That's the two shots that I got. | ||
My family got that one. | ||
And we got that one because that's what they offered that day. | ||
If they were offering Pfizer, I would have gotten the Pfizer one. | ||
So that's all up to interpersonal choice. | ||
What of your colleagues that are now stepping down or being furloughed, et cetera, do they know what they're gonna do with their lives? | ||
I mean, most people don't have months in salary just waiting in the bank, and you didn't think you were gonna step away from a career, and here we are. | ||
It's very stressful. | ||
A lot of them have kids, too. | ||
There's one nurse, she's a single mom, been a nurse for quite a few years in the ER, and she very reluctantly got the vaccine. | ||
against her will. | ||
She did not want this at all. | ||
She's very distressed because she's already gotten the first shot. | ||
She goes, I can't lose my job. | ||
I'm a single mom. | ||
If I lose my job, I can't afford my house or to feed my kid. | ||
I don't have a choice here. | ||
And that's just horrible to do. | ||
Someone's just sacrificed their whole last year working overtime, coming in extra. | ||
You know, we used to get undressed outside of our house. | ||
I personally quarantined two weeks away from my family in the beginning because I didn't know if I would bring this home. | ||
And now this is someone that wants to care for a child and she doesn't have another option. | ||
Because she was forced to get that vaccine. | ||
Is there anything else you want people to know? | ||
We're gonna do a whole series of these shows. | ||
I'm gonna try to talk to people in all sorts of different industries. | ||
And I just think it's important that people realize what's actually happening on the ground. | ||
Is there anything that we missed here that you wanna get out? | ||
Yeah, just two. | ||
If you do want to find more information, my website, Surdi4Congress.com, S-U-R-D-I 4Congress.com, a ton of information on there you can follow. | ||
And one note about the governors using the National Guard. | ||
This is a horrible policy decision. | ||
God bless the people in the National Guard. | ||
They're absolutely heroes. | ||
They do a ton of great work for us. | ||
But if we're going to activate the medical people from the National Guard, these are doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and they're working right now In hospitals. | ||
The National Guard is a part-time military position. | ||
What's going to happen is when the Guard is activated, you're going to pull these full-time doctors and nurses that are working at other hospitals today away from their home hospital and put them in other hospitals. | ||
So we're just going to make staffing shorter all around by deploying the National Guard. | ||
And I don't know if a lot of people know that. | ||
The National Guard has a horrible policy decision amongst a lot of other horrible ones. | ||
It's not going to solve the problem. | ||
It's actually going to make it a lot worse. | ||
Are you hopeful that enough people will hear the message that you're trying to get out there, that enough people will come around and be like, oh yeah, maybe my own personal choice is more important than what the government demands that I do? | ||
Like, do you sense that something's moving there? | ||
That there's momentum there? | ||
There are a lot of people. | ||
You know, my big hope is the governor comes to his senses and resends the order. | ||
You know, we've seen this hospital in- I don't think so. | ||
I don't think so is my hope. | ||
Alabama, they resended it. | ||
There are some places that are, you know, They're not doing it. | ||
They kind of told the state, we're not going to do this. | ||
And we're hoping they stand their ground and they continue to say, this is my choice. | ||
I have antibodies. | ||
I don't have antibodies. | ||
But you can't force something that is this new. | ||
A lot of people argue that the vaccine is not new. | ||
The research has been there. | ||
And I fully agree. | ||
The research has been there. | ||
But they haven't used it on humans. | ||
This is a new thing that's being actually used. | ||
We're still in a trial phase. | ||
And, you know, I was fine getting the shot. | ||
You know, I looked at the research and the data and I took the acknowledged risk to get it. | ||
That was my choice. | ||
It was a choice. | ||
And my wife didn't get the vaccine while she was pregnant. | ||
Don't take the choice out of people, especially the people that are fighting on the front lines to protect their community. | ||
They're putting themselves and their families at risk. | ||
They still want to work. | ||
They still want to care for you. | ||
And if you got the vaccine, you can still spread the virus. | ||
So why is it that we're firing people and we're fired? | ||
Just give a test. | ||
I'd much rather test every healthcare employee. | ||
When we come into work, give us all a test and that way we know for sure we don't have COVID that day and we won't spread the patient. | ||
I think every healthcare worker can get behind that. | ||
The flu vaccine was mandated. | ||
And they said, well, if you don't want the flu vaccine, wear a mask. | ||
There's always been another option. | ||
That's all we're asking for. | ||
Give us a test. | ||
Let us know we absolutely don't have it. | ||
And that's actually the safest thing you can do. | ||
That's not being happened. | ||
This is a power grab. | ||
It feels like a punishment of some sort. | ||
And it's just not the right thing to do. | ||
And patients are going to suffer, which is why I'm standing this line. | ||
I can't have this affect patient care. | ||
Kevin, we, the people, stand with you guys. | ||
It's certiforcongress.com. | ||
We're gonna link to it right down below. | ||
And keep New York three, especially Syosset, safe. | ||
That's Billy Joel country over there. | ||
And please, you know, give us your support. | ||
There's a place to donate on the website. | ||
Unfortunately, you know, politics does require money to get the message out. | ||
It's a sad part. | ||
Hopefully, when I'm in Congress, I can try to fix that. | ||
But send a donation, help us get that message out there, and please look for your votes. | ||
And if there's anything you need, please reach out, contact me. | ||
All my information is on the website. | ||
I'd love to speak with you individually. |