Jensen Responds to Health Care Staffing Crisis

Assemblyman Josh Jensen (R,C-Greece) is calling on the governor to reconsider her position on allowing previously-fired health care workers to return to their jobs following the recent overturning of the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care workers. New York is currently facing a severe health care worker crisis, in which nearly 34,000 workers quit in the past due to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement, and providers across the healthcare continuum in all areas of the state are in dire need of critically-important frontline staff.

“This mandate continues to have an increasingly detrimental effect on our health care system, which is already in critical condition. In today’s healthcare settings, we can protect those most at risk of infection without closing the door on thousands of health care employees who want to help their fellow New Yorkers; unilaterally barring these nursing staff members from employment is not a solution. Public health needs to be a top priority in New York, instead we are punishing our front-line workers, losing more staff, and putting people at risk of neglect from short-staffing,” said Jensen.