'No Jab, No Job' protest takes aim at COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care workers
AURORA, Colo. — A group of nurses, health care workers, and supporters gathered outside the UCHealth Anschutz Medical Campus August 9 to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the health care network.
“I think it’s mostly about coercion and force,” said Stephanie Thorpe, a nurse at UCHealth. “We shouldn’t be mandating medicine.”
Thorpe was one of the many people in attendance. She helped organize the event in a Facebook group called “Nurses & Healthcare Workers UNITED” that has nearly 2,000 members. UCHealth recently announced that all staff must be vaccinated by October 1 or risk termination (unless they are not vaccinated due to religious reasons or have an appropriate medical exemption).
As of August 9, 90% of UCHealth employees are vaccinated, according to Dr. Michelle Barron, the senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth, so unvaccinated employees are part of a small minority. Thorpe knows this and said she was at the protest to speak up for employees who might agree with her but are afraid to make their position known.
Thorpe and Kinley Queen-Thompson were co-organizers of the protest, which at one point was about 50 people large.
“We still care about patients,” Thorpe said. “We still care about the outcomes of patients and we’ve always been fierce advocates. And now we’re just advocating for ourselves.”
Unlike Thorpe, Queen-Thompson does not work at UCHealth. Dressed in scrubs and holding a sign that read What about us and our rights?, she explained she was a nurse at a long-term care facility, but did not disclose which one. She did note that she was still waiting to figure out if her company will require COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are not for or against vaccination,” Queen-Thompson said. “We are merely standing up for the American citizens, our rights, and our medical freedom to choose what we do with our bodies.”
Queen-Thompson and others at the protest noted that the current COVID-19 vaccines have not received full authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Right now, they are being used under emergency authorization. Ryan Hill, a nurse with UCHealth in Fort Collins, drove to the protest in Aurora after his shift.
“We went from being heroes to being mandated to take a vaccine,” Hill said. He added that he would reconsider getting vaccinated once the FDA gave full approval.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, which tracks the public’s attitude toward vaccination, about 30% of unvaccinated people said they would be more likely to get vaccinated if one of the vaccines received full approval from the FDA. That approval is expected to happen for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine early next month.
Queen-Thompson, Thorpe and another protester, Glenda Simpson, also mentioned natural immunity several times. Natural immunity occurs when someone contracts COVID-19 and survives. Simpson works at Fairacres Manor, a nursing home in Greeley (Rocky Mountain PBS reached out to Fairacres Manor to find out if vaccines are required for their employees, but has not heard back).
“Through the pandemic I contracted COVID, and that was a very scary situation,” Queen-Thompson said. “I have natural immunities. Why is the government, why are these people not talking about natural immunities?”
But speaking to the media after the protest, Barron did talk about natural immunity and explained that it offers far less protection than vaccinations.
“If you just had natural immunity, your risk of getting re-infected is twice the amount than if you get vaccinated,” Barron said. “Even if you had COVID in the past, there is no reason not to get vaccinated and it’s in your best interest, because we do know that people get re-infected and often that reinfection is more severe than the first round.”
[Related: Why COVID-19 Vaccines Offer Better Protection Than Infection—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health]
Barron added that natural immunity is “not adequate,” especially considering the transmissibility of the highly contagious Delta variant.
For Barron, the fight against COVID-19 is very personal. Not only has it been the focus of her work for the last year and a half, but Barron lost two family members to the virus.
"I want people to know that this is still important" — getting vaccinated, wearing masks, being careful, she told Rocky Mountain PBS in May. "We are not done with this pandemic. People are still going to die."
“Obviously we want to be respectful of people’s individual preferences and opinions,” Barron said Monday, noting that there are religious and medical exemptions for some people. “But at the end of the day we feel strongly the vaccine is the number one way we can provide protection to our employees, to our staff, and most of all to our patients and the community.”
Other public health experts agree. "The only way out of this is with mandatory vaccinations," DDPHE Executive Director Bob McDonald said during a recent press conference in Denver in which Mayor Hancock announced all city employees must be vaccinated, including health care workers.
Statewide, the percentage of fully vaccinated health care workers is unknown. A spokesperson from CDPHE told Rocky Mountain PBS the Colorado Immunization Information System does not track occupation data. However, the spokesperson noted that in addition to UCHealth, other major health care networks such as Banner Health and Denver Health are mandating vaccinations for employees.
Asked about the protesters, Barron approached the situation from a place of civility and understanding. She said she has had multiple one-on-one conversations with vaccine-hesitant colleagues.
“I think it’s easy on the surface to say these things without knowing individual stories,” Barron said. “I try to not pass that kind of judgement and just allow for compassion because we’re all humans. And we all often look back and think ‘That wasn’t such a good idea.’ And it’s always easier in retrospect.”
Barron emphasized that UCHealth is not alone in these requirements. Many industries are increasingly implementing vaccine mandates, from airlines to colleges to the United States Military.
“It is safe,” Barron said of the vaccine. “It is highly effective, and it is the way we are going to get ourselves out of the pandemic.”
Jennifer Castor is the Executive Producer of Multimedia Content at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at jennifercastor@rmpbs.org.
Kyle Cooke is the Digital Media Manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.