
Hard numbers should be easy to come by. Whereas governments bombard us with daily updates as to the numbers of the COVID-infected and hospitalized, they have been reluctant to provide the exact numbers of health care workers that they fired or put on unpaid leave due to their mandatory vaccination policies.
In British Columbia, Canada, on March 22, 2022, the Ministry of Health announced that 2,496 workers had been fired in November 2021, with the caveat that this number is not a complete reckoning. The same Ministry is under question for stepping down on a requirement for other healthcare workers to be vaccinated by the end of March 2022. Those workers now only have to report their vaccination status. Why apply different rules at different times? Why fire workers and then have no painless option to reinstate them if you change the requirements?
In Alberta, Canada, estimates range that between 1400 and 1650 healthcare workers were put on unpaid leave on December 13, 2021 for not complying with Alberta Health Services’ mandatory vaccination policy. About 500 of these workers were rehired in January 2022 after agreeing to a COVID-testing program that they pay for individually.
Here is what Empty Boots knows as of Februrary 15, 2022:
6 pairs of empty boots: 111 years, 7 months of service