Kapenga calls on health care workers to ‘stand up’ against vaccine mandates.
MADISON - One of the leaders of the state Senate is calling on health care workers opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates to take action against them, alarming some health care officials navigating a surge of new infections while vaccinations stall.
Senate President Chris Kapenga on Friday said health care executives requiring employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 are “bowing to the woke culture being pushed by the left.”
“I want to encourage the groups that are forming to stick to your principles and don’t give in! Based on what I am seeing, it will be impossible for the hospital systems to function without you,” Kapenga, R-Delafield, said in a statement aimed at health care workers.
“If you stand up for your protection now, others who are considering implementing the vaccination mandate will back off, and you will once again be leading in the protection of our health.”
In response, Wisconsin Medical Society board chairman Jerry Halverson urged those with concerns about COVID-19 vaccines to reach out to their doctors instead.
“Elected leaders can play an important role fighting against this pandemic. Vaccinations for deadly and debilitating diseases like polio, measles and now COVID-19 are medical miracles that have vastly improved our country’s health. Urging people to avoid vaccinations works against what we all want: beating COVID-19, saving lives and getting our kids back into school,” he said.
“Your health is more important than politics.”
Kapenga in his statement said over the last week he has had conversations with health care workers who are opposed to new requirements being implemented by health care systems across the state.
“Once they were hailed as heroes; but now, those who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine might very well find themselves fired from their jobs!” Kapenga said in the statement.
Aides to Kapenga did not immediately answer whether Kapenga was explicitly asking health care workers to strike over the vaccine requirements, or whether he would support vaccine requirements for workers who tend to patients at higher risk of complications if they contract COVID-19.
Eleven Wisconsin health systems, including the largest, Advocate Aurora Health, announced in recent days their employees would be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Health care facilities have long required employees be vaccinated against certain diseases, including the flu. The new mandates come as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country and as Wisconsin hospitals have seen an increase in patients with severe complications from COVID-19.
“We did not take this decision lightly,” Susan Turney, a physician and CEO of Marshfield Clinic, said in a statement earlier this week. “It was one we’ve been discussing for the past several weeks. But the time has come. In order to be a leader in the community and provide the care our patients deserve, we need to lead by example.”
In Wisconsin, the seven-day average of new cases has spiked again to 1,000 — a level not seen since early February, before vaccines were widely available.
More than 90% of all hospital admissions for COVID-19 and almost all deaths from the disease now are from patients who were not vaccinated.
Republican lawmakers like Kapenga have long opposed such requirements and have largely refrained from promoting the idea of getting vaccinated to prevent more deaths and serious health complications.
Gov. Tony Evers’ spokeswoman said Kapenga’s statement was “absolutely irresponsible.”
“Wisconsin activated a field hospital last fall because our hospitals and healthcare infrastructure were overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. This is dangerous and reckless rhetoric at a time when our state is seeing alarming case trends,” spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said.