Attorney Aurora fires 440 workers who refuse to get COVID shots

Attorney Aurora Health, the largest hospital system in Illinois and Wisconsin, has fired more than 400 employees who refused to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Nearly half of the 440 recently laid off employees worked part-time, the company said in a statement. The number is less than 1% of approximately 75,000 employees.

The system, which operates as Advocate Health Care in Illinois, announced in early August that it would require its workers to be vaccinated. Other major hospitals issued similar announcements just before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced full government approval of the Pfizer vaccine. Two other vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are administered under urgent FDA approval.

“With approximately 99% of our team members complying with or in the process of complying with our vaccine policies, we protect the health and safety of our patients, communities and each other,” the attorney said in a statement.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul received her COVID-19 vaccination in March at Advocate Health Care’s vaccine clinic in Imani Village, Cottage Grove Heights.

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times

Lawyer does not provide a breakdown of the positions among the fired – nurses, doctors or other staff – and a spokesman declined to comment further.

When it announced its mandate in August, the lawyer said it would make limited exceptions for religious or medical reasons. The announcement also coincided with an increase in the number of cases over the summer attributed to a highly contagious form of the virus known as the Delta variant.

Attorney Aurora operates 26 hospitals in the two states.

Gov. JB Pritzker in August issued a vaccination mandate for state health personnel.

Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.