This mandate comes at a time when Maine is already facing critical nursing and aide shortages. The loss of additional healthcare workers as a result of the mandate will create dangerous staffing shortages including first-responders and critical hospital staff statewide, posing a danger to all Mainers. Many healthcare workers have already quit, and thousands more intend to do the same if the mandate is not overturned.

Emily Nixon, RN and spokesperson for Coalition for Healthcare Workers Against Medical Mandates, has talked to thousands of healthcare workers across the state since the news of the new mandate hit. “Healthcare workers, including those already fully vaccinated, oppose this mandate because no Mainer should have medical decisions forced on them to keep their jobs. Healthcare employees – doctors, nurses, admin, first-responders – deserve the same right to bodily autonomy and non-coerced medical decision-making as do their patients. These very employees who have been celebrated for risking their lives, working under extremely difficult conditions to take care of Mainers throughout the pandemic, are now being fired for their personal medical choices.”

Senator Lisa Keim (R-Oxford), member of the legislative Liberty Caucus, said “these grassroots groups have joined forces to focus on one thing – overturning this overreaching mandate. We are supporting the thousands of impacted workers statewide who are protesting the Governor’s dictatorial mandate while considering all available legal challenges to ensure that no Mainer is discriminated against based on their personal medical status. This mandate starts with our healthcare heroes, but make no mistake, it will be extended to other Mainers if we don’t put a stop to it now.”