TEMPLE, Texas — Scott and White nurses joined with dozes of community members Saturday to protest Baylor Scott and White's vaccine mandate.
Baylor Scott & White Health said back in July that all employees, providers, volunteers, vendors and staff must have received the Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Oct. 1, unless granted an exemption.
Last Tuesday, Scott and White released another statement about the surge of patients it is now dealing with and the issues that surge is creating.
"If the current surge continues and our intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rate continues to increase, our hospitals may not be able to meet the critical healthcare needs of our community. We can avoid this if we change course now. We urge the community to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones, and to lessen the burden on our frontline workers who have been fighting this virus for the last year and a half. COVID-19 vaccines are the safest and most effective way to end the pandemic."
According to data submitted to the the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 44 percent of patients in the Baylor Scott and White Memorial Hospital ICU are COVID-19 patients, as of Monday.
At the same time, nurses told 6 News Saturday they still have concerns about the available vaccines and wish they could wait until potential side effects were better understood.
"I have been vaccinated with a lot of other vaccines but there is not enough research for this one," a nurse who identified herself as "Caitlin A", said. "We have seen a lot of vaccine injury in the pediatric population whether they want to admit it or not... In several years as things get approved I'm sure we'll see a turnaround in nurses who want it."
"We deserve the freedom to choose. It's not an anti-vax or pro-vax stance. It's about the right to chose what you put in your body," Melissa Arnold said. "A lot of people have told me, its not that they don't want the vaccine its just that they want to wait a while."
Of course, Scott and White employees don't have "a little while". They have to make a choice by Oct 1. And they aren't the only hospital making that move. Ascension Providence had established a similar requirement to vaccinate by Nov. 12.
Hospitals have been trying to move staff around to make room in ICUs. Thursday, local medical professionals told reporters about the dire situation they face.
"There are sick people, your family members, your relatives, your friends that show up at area community hospitals that we have to say no to because we just don't have a bed to place them in," Scott and White CMO Dr. Stephen Sibbitt Tuesday.
6 News asked nurses at the protest what could be done to prevent people from ending up in the hospital. There answers are as follows:
"Wash you hands, take vitamin C, drink water, have some rest. Get some Zinc," Arnold said. "Healthy lifestyles."
"Washing your hands number one. If you are coughing and sneezing do it into your elbow so that you are not spreading those germs," Caitlin A said. "I do believe that it will stem the tide."
Several other nurses at the protest stated they did not want to talk on camera.