Houston Methodist Hospital is doubling down on its vaccine mandate ultimatums, now threatening to fire nurses and doctors who refuse to take a booster shot too.

In an email to employees, Methodist says management must get the booster by January 31, 2022, and all other employees must get the booster by March 1, 2022. The email doesn’t say what will happen if employees don’t comply, but history tells us they will be fired, further straining staffing at the hospital.

Methodist made headlines last spring when it required all employees and physicians to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In June, over 150 employees were fired or forced to resign after Methodist rolled out its initial mandate.

Dr. Mary Bowden, the ear, nose and throat doctor who resigned from Methodist after they attacked her medical views on vaccines and COVID treatment, said this latest mandate will further stretch the already short-staffed hospital and endanger patient care.

“As a physician who has tested and treated thousands of COVID patients, I see no medically valid reason for Methodist Hospital to demand its employees get a booster,” Bowden said. “This requirement will only lead to further staffing shortages at a time when hospital admissions are rising, putting patient care further at risk.”

Roberta Schwartz, Houston Methodist’s executive vice president, was quoted recently claiming, “It’s challenging each day to be able to staff every bed that we’d like to staff.” Yet they are willing to fire more of their staff.

Methodist has been pushing the vaccine relentlessly, claiming it is effective in protecting patients and its employees against serious illness. Yet in early January, Houston Methodist hospitals reported 1,500 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 over a seven-day period, the largest number of cases among hospital system employees since the pandemic began. That’s more than five percent of the system’s roughly 27,000 employees.

“We know employees who have already had COVID and have natural antibodies and we know employees who have gotten COVID even after they got the vaccine and they are furious at Methodist’s new mandates,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “We have now received an anonymous letter sent by scared doctors warning hospital care in Methodist is being compromised by these mandates. We don’t need a letter to know that getting rid of hospital workers is stupid right now.”

Methodist has refused to release financial records showing how much the hospital is profiting from the COVID pandemic and the vaccines they are requiring their employees to take.

Dr. Bowden is available for interviews on this new development.