Minnesotans are organizing a protest for medical freedom following several Minnesota healthcare providers requiring employees to take the COVID vaccine or lose their jobs.
The protest will be held at the Minnesota State Capitol on August 28 at 12 p.m. Mayo Clinic, Allina Health, and M Health Fairview are three major healthcare providers that will be requiring employees to take the vaccine. The organizers are holding the protest to “demand informed consent and transparency in matters of health choice and medical freedom without coercion.”
Jenny Johnson-Erickson, one of the event organizers, said she works in healthcare and feels her job is in jeopardy. Johnson-Erickson told The Minnesota Sun, “I have been a vaccine advocate for many years, I support people who choose this path for themselves.”
She explained she does not support “guilting, shaming, bribing, and coercion when it comes to people’s personal medical choices.”
She said she believes that the COVID vaccine carries a risk and “where there is risk there must be a choice.”
Johnson-Erickson said, “Telling a single mom to get this vaccine or she faces losing her job is hardly a choice.”
She went on to say the importance of looking at the big picture and asked what businesses or schools or other venues would be next to require employees or customers to have the vaccination. The healthcare worker said, “Even if this isn’t directly affecting a person now, will it affect them in the future?”
Another event organizer, Brenna Marie, explained to The Sun why she is so passionate about these mandates.
She said, “As nurses and healthcare workers, many of us will be faced with losing our jobs — and even worse, losing what we love to do — because of the controversy surrounding the COVID-19 shot.”
Marie said she hopes the protest will help to “inform and provide support to those who feel they have no voice in the matter or are too afraid to speak out.”
Also, Marie said she believes getting the COVID vaccine is a personal decision and that “this is about individual rights and constitutional freedoms.”
Representative Jeremy Munson also had some strong words for those mandating vaccines for their employees.
He said in a Facebook post, “It is also important to acknowledge the financial risk and civil liability you assume in mandating your employees be injected with an untested vaccine.”
According to the Becker Hospital Review, a study conducted in part by The Washington Post found that one in six healthcare employees would rather quit their job than take a forced COVID vaccination.
Johnson-Erickson said that the goal of the event is to help others realize that they are not alone.
She said, “I am hoping by coming together and supporting each other this will give courage to those that feel alone and help them to feel confident in standing up for their beliefs.”
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network. She graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Send news tips to [email protected].
