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Staff members at a NY hospital have resigned instead of being forced to get vaccinated to keep their jobs. The departure of those hospital staff have made it difficult now for that hospital to reportedly be able to deliver babies and now they are going to stop delivering [babies this month as a result](https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/ny-hospital-wont-deliver-babies-after-unvaccinated-staff-quit/3267240/). 

Last year they were celebrated as heroes and for more than a year they employed a variety of measures to keep those staff and patients safe throughout the pandemic, with protective gear and distancing and other measures, but now that isn't good enough.

A growing number of professionals are ready to leave their employment, risk it all and start all over, because their consent on this issue and their autonomy is worth more to them.  From nurses to police officers, firefighters, emergency professionals who help our communities in a multitude of ways each day, are now being shamed, investigated, and fired, because of their personal choice on this issue. 

The number of resignations that they recently saw at that one hospital has now caused an issue with not being able to deliver babies for the rest of the month. If more staff take similar stances this could mean significant problems for the healthcare system that is already suffering with a myriad of issues that keep it from performing at more optimal levels, including shortage of staff.

Dozens of nurses are also [already behind lawsuits](https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/09/employees-suing-henry-ford-health-system-over-its-covid-19-vaccine-mandate.html) to sue over those vaccination mandates. For one professor who already sued in the U.S. over the mandate at his school arguing it allegedly violated his constitutional and federal rights,  [he has been successful](https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/26/doctor-challenges-uc-systems-vaccine-mandate-saying-he-is-naturally-immune-to-covid-19/) and was reportedly granted an exemption. How many others might be similarly successful? We have only started to see the beginning of the long fight many are ready to endure to pushback on this issue. 

## Civil liberties advocates, disability advocates, anti-poverty advocates, human rights advocates, members associated with these groups have asserted in response to this issue that there are serious and legitimate concerns about the impact of these mandates.
<center></center>These broad measures are failing to account for the diverse and unique needs of individuals and patients. There are concerning questions about bodily autonomy and informed consent, as well as reasonable considerations about liability if anything were to go wrong with those vaccines; manufacturers are mostly immune to being held responsible. 

The risk might be small but there is still a risk and it should be up to the individual to decide if they want to take that risk or not.

If those police officers, firefighters, and nurses, had put up videos of them urging people to get vaccinated then we would see no negative response. But since they dare to have a different opinion on the issue we see [them investigated, fired, and shamed](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/firefighter-vaccine-mandate-lawsuit-rant-los-angeles-b1908768.html).