Rally targets vaccine mandate

COEUR d’ALENE — Stephanie Wolf doesn’t work at Kootenai Health and doesn’t know anyone who works there. But the Post Falls woman still joined a rally outside the hospital on Saturday to protest a requirement that its employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“I do not believe that the government or hospital should be enforcing a mandate, especially to take an experimental drug,” she said as she stood on the southeast corner of U.S. 95 and Ironwood Drive.

People, she added, should be able to make their own health care choices.

Wolf believes the requirement that hospital staff be vaccinated or face losing their jobs is unconstitutional and freedom is at stake.

“They’re coming for us next,” she said.

Wolf was one of about 200 people who joined the rally that started at 10 a.m. on a rainy, windy, near-freezing day.

They waved signs that stated, “No jab mandates,” “Jab or Job is wrong,” “Coercion is not consent,” and “Americans were built for battle, not to be jabbed like cattle!”

Passing drivers honked horns, which drew cheers and waves from the crowd bundled up in winter gear and holding umbrellas for protection against the 37-degree weather.

Liz Graybill, a registered nurse at a Post Falls hospital, said she was there in support of medical freedom. She said individuals should have the ability to decide what goes in their bodies.

Graybill said she had COVID-19 and as a result, has natural immunities.

“We should all be able to have a decision on what happens to us,” the Coeur d’Alene woman said. “As a nurse, I swore an oath to advocate for patients and other people’s freedoms to make those decisions.”

Michael Luntz of Coeur d’Alene said he was there to take a stand for hospital workers who don’t want the vaccine.

“I don’t think it’s right they are doing that to their employees,” he said.

Kootenai Health, in response to a request from The Press for comment on the rally, had this to say:

"As of Dec. 10, 98 percent of Kootenai Health employees have complied with the Kootenai Health vaccination policy. Of these, 79 percent are fully vaccinated or intend to become vaccinated, and 21 percent have requested a medical or religious exemption. Ninety-nine percent of exemption requests have been granted by Kootenai Health.”

Kootenai Health recently delayed by one week a requirement that its staff be vaccinated. It previously stated employees had to be vaccinated by Dec. 6 “to ensure we are fully compliant with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) interim final rule, requiring COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers in hospitals.”

A suit challenging the federal mandate was led on behalf of multiple states, including Idaho, by Louisiana. U.S. Judge Terry Doughty granted the states’ request for a preliminary injunction.

“The public interest is served by maintaining the constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals who do not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine,” Doughty wrote in his opinion.

Kootenai Health said due to the uncertainty the court order created, it adjusted the compliance date to Monday.

Some were critical of Kootenai Health for pushing ahead with the vaccine requirement despite that decision.

Shawn Hamilton of Post Falls said Kootenai Health should enforce what the law is, not write its own vaccine rule for employment.

“It’s held up in federal courts because it’s not constitutional,” she said.

The statement from Kootenai Health said that in 2020 and 2021, it has cared for 3,024 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, with 277 of those patients dying from the virus in its hospital.

“The vast majority of those patients were unvaccinated. This has placed a significant strain on our staff as well as our ability to provide needed care for other patients,” it said. ”It has been the single greatest health care challenge to face our community."

According to the statement, when CMS issued its interim final rule requiring COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers, Kootenai Health leaders developed a plan "to quickly move into compliance and meet the rule’s deadlines. The final rule recognized that individuals have the right to request both medical and religious exemptions from the vaccine."

Kootenai Health's statement said that the federal court in Louisiana "did not prevent health care providers from taking steps on their own to lessen the impact of COVID-19. The CMS rule was designed to protect health and safety and Kootenai Health still believes this to be true. As a result, Kootenai Health has continued to move forward with a COVID-19 vaccination requirement."

One protester who said she was a nurse at Kootenai Health opposed being forced to get the vaccine.

“You either get it or you lose your job. That is the piece that upsets me,” she said.

She said some of her colleagues got the vaccine even though they didn't want it.

The woman declined to give her name for fear it could jeopardize her job. She said she had COVID-19 in September and believed she now has immunity against it.

“But they still want me to get vaccinated. I have a problem with that. I have a problem with mandating it,” she said.

Willa Cahill of Hayden, a medical case manager, said there is a staffing shortage in health care and it will be exacerbated by a vaccine mandate.

“If you force these heroes to take a vaccine against their will, we are going to face an absolute crisis this country has never seen,” she said.

Summer Bushnell, a rally organizer, said she was disappointed Kootenai Health was proceeding with the vaccine requirement rather than waiting for the issue to be resolved in court.

She questioned how the religious exemption process works.

"Why would we be judging other peoples’ religious beliefs?” She said.

Emily Bacon of Post Falls said she joined the rally for her five-month-old daughter.

“I don’t want her to grow up in a world where she can’t have bodily autonomy,” she said. “To have a mandate for vaccines anywhere shows she is not her own person. I don’t want her to grow up thinking that.

“She has the right to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated,” Bacon said.

In its statement, Kootenai Health said it "will continue to monitor the status of all litigation involving the CMS rule and will make any changes as warranted."