KETTERING, OH—An Adventist Hospital in Dayton, Ohio (Kettering Health) announced twelve days ago that they are mandating Covid vaccines for all employees by October 4, 2021. Even more coercive, they are demanding that all contractors and vendors who make deliveries or perform work on KH hospital facilities also be vaccinated.
The mandate triggered massive discontent and disapproval from workers, non-medical staff and concerned citizens in Dayton.
On Wednesday morning, a crowd of around 1,000 gathered outside of Kettering Health’s administrative headquarters to protest the mandate.
Demonstrators shared a common theme. They support personal choice, whether people want to get the shot or not.
“We worked all of 2020 during COVID without a mandate, and now we face losing our jobs if we are not vaccinated,” said Brittany Grey, an RN. “It is important to stand up for personal choice. Nobody should lose their livelihood because they decide not to get the vaccine.”
Some healthcare professionals at the protests declined to disclose their names for fear of retribution from their employer.
“We would never force a medical procedure on a patient,” one RN said. “It is our job to educate and explain the risks and benefits, but ultimately it is their decision. I expect the same right and respect for myself.”
Other objections are,
“One of the craziest things about the whole thing to me is that I knew somebody with a terminal disease and there was a experimental treatment that they could not get permission to do because it was experimental and they weren't in the experiment... And now a few years later we're being forced into a different experiment, but it seems crazy because that person I referenced earlier was terminal so what was there to lose? Boy how things have changed.”
“We are taught about patient advocacy, and we advocate for patient rights every day. Healthcare professionals on the frontlines should also be advocated for and have the same rights and choices as our patients. For many of us, this is not about whether someone should be vaccinated or not vaccinated. It is about the freedom of medical choice, and not losing our job if we choose to not get the vaccine” — An Ohio Hospice nurse.
“If Kettering Health Network forces unwanted medical procedures on their employees and vendors, I'd be afraid to be a patient there. Ugh” — Ste Clipper.
A Seventh-day Adventist church member, Isaiah Stearns, was among those outside of Kettering Health for the demonstration. Kettering Health’s roots are built around the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Following his death in 1958, Charles Kettering’s son and daughter-in-law, Eugene and Virginia, built a hospital as a memorial of his life and work. They were impressed by the treatment polio patients received at a hospital operated by Seventh-day Adventists and believed the church’s philosophy of healing and Christian-centered compassion was the ideal foundation for a new community-based hospital. Kettering Memorial Hospital, a 254-bed facility, was officially dedicated in February 1964.
Though not Adventists themselves, the Ketterings enlisted the help of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to build and operate the hospital because of their admiration of the Adventist healthcare philosophy, according to the Kettering Health website.
A statement from Seventh-day Adventist Church’s General Conference reads,
“The decision to be immunized or not is the choice of each individual and should be taken in consultation with one’s health-care provider. We ultimately rely on following biblical health practices and the Spirit of Prophecy, and following God’s leading in our lives, which will bring us peace and assurance in our decision making.”
Stearns believes that Kettering Health’s vaccine mandate contradicts the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s view.
“Forcing anybody to do anything goes directly against our beliefs,” he said. “So I am very disappointed in the leadership in Kettering Health Network. They are pushing something that goes contrary to our system and just people in general. I believe that they are not leaders. They are hypocrites.”
In response to Wednesday’s protest, a Kettering Health spokesman said,
“We fully respect the right of individuals to assemble and peacefully protest [but apparently not the right to choose to opt out of the Covid vaccine], and we continue to have productive conversations with our colleagues as we navigate this next phase of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished” (The Acts of the Apostles, p12).
