Hundreds of Virginia Health Care Workers Suspended or Fired Over Vaccine Mandates

A nurse carefully removes her mask and PPE after tending to a patient with COVID-19 in the acute care COVID unit at Harborview Medical Center on May 7, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. Karen Ducey/Getty Images

Several hundred health care workers across the state of Virginia have either lost their jobs or been suspended because they refuse to comply with mandates to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, joined other states including California, New York, and North Carolina in issuing a directive in August mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for most of Virginia’s state workers—a move that applied to more than 120,000 executive branch employees.