Nurses hail SCOTUS ruling for mandated vaccines for health workers, but decry Justices decision denying mandate for other workers

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Candles were used to represent the nurses who have died from COVID-19.

On the same day that nurses across the U.S. were rallying for safer working conditions, the U.S. Supreme Court was approving President Biden's mandate for all workers in health care facilities be vaccinated. 

The largest union of registered nurses, the National Nurses United, Thursday welcomed the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Biden administration’s authority to issue a vaccine mandate for all workers in health care facilities. At the same time, the nurses were disappointed that the Court overruled similar federal safety measures for all employees.

“At a time when we’re closing in on 850,000 Americans having died in the worst global pandemic in a century, and when infections and hospitalizations are continuing to soar, it is the obligation of our public agencies to require and enforce essential public safety measures to protect the lives and health of all American workers,” said Filipino American RN Zenei Triunfo-Coretez, NNU President .

Nurses at Dignity Health in Santa Clara County, CA took park in a rally Thursday.

“From the onset of the pandemic in the U.S. two years ago, nurses have demanded that federal and state officials direct health care employers in particular to implement a variety of infectious disease control protocols – especially as we have seen employers routinely ignore basic protections,” said Triunfo-Cortez.

“The result has been the deaths of more than 4,700 health care workers, including close to 500 RNs, and hospitals turned into sites of potential infection instead of healing, with patients being infected with Covid-19 after arriving in hospitals for other emergency care.”

“For that reason, we are gratified with today’s 5-4 court decision that, frankly, should have been unanimous, to support one important safety measure — vaccination for health care workers — which must be part of the total program of infectious disease containment measures NNU has long outlined,” she continued.

The court order, said Triunfo-Cortez, “should be a signal to the Department of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take the next necessary step — extending the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) issued last June until adopting a permanent standard based on it for health care workplaces.”

Earlier this month, NNU, along with the AFL-CIO and four other unions representing nurses, petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a permanent standard “aimed at protecting the life and health of millions of nurses and other frontline health care workers throughout the United States in grave danger from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic” and for retention of the ETS.

On Thursday, a national day of action organized by the NNU involved hundreds of RNs at dozens of hospitals staged informational picket lines, including a candlelight vigil held at Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.

NNU nurses emphasized that in recent weeks, the Biden administration has ripped away critical protections from health care workers and the public, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) weakening COVID-19 isolation guidelines and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announcing that it intends to withdraw critical COVID-19protections for health care workers — right when the Omicron variant is exploding across the country and hospitalizations are skyrocketing.

“OSHA is charged with ensuring that employers create and maintain safe workplaces, and this delay in issuing a permanent standard puts the lives of nurses and other health care workers, patients, and our communities, in jeopardy," said Bonnie Castillo, RN, NNU executive director. 

"We have seen far too many of our fellow nurses die during this pandemic. As of today, we have recorded the deaths of 476 nurse deaths from Covid," said the Filipino American nurse. 

"Going to work should not mean putting your life and the lives of your loved ones in danger. It is time for OSHA to issue a permanent standard and protect nurses and health care workers who are on the front lines working to save the lives of others.” — 

At the same time, with today’s SCOTUS ruling, NNU condemned the argument of the 6-3 majority throwing out the vaccine mandate for other workplaces, especially the majority’s argument that the rampant spread of the infection in unsafe workplaces is not an “occupational hazard in most.”

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Nurses in Maine took part in the NNU Day of Action.

“That twisted logic ignores the disproportionate number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among tens of thousands of essential workers over the past two years, from infections that have been contracted on the job,” said Triunfo-Cortez. “And the pandemic is far from over, with the latest deadly surge still overwhelming hospitals.”

Over the past two weeks alone, according to a New York Times tracker, infections were up by 159 percent with 781,000 daily new cases on average, and over 1,800 people are still dying every day, a 51 percent increase over the two-week average.

An earlier study found that about a third of health care workers who died from COVID-19 were of Filipino descent, many of them initially recruited from Philippines.

“If the agencies created to protect worker safety are barred from doing so, we have no laws and no safety regulations in the nation at all,” Triunfo-Cortez added. “In the midst of this still-raging pandemic,” she concluded, “nurses fully agree with the words of AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler today, we will not beat this pandemic until we stop the spread of the pandemic at work.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd

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Nurses in Contra Costa County, California showed their support for a safer work environment.

Ceremony planned to remember and honor RNs felled by COVID-19

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Bonnie Castillo, (in black) leads the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.

The 400 registered nurses who have died in the United States from the COVID-19 pandemic will be honored on a National Day of Remembrance, Wednesday, May 12, in the nation's capitol.

The names of each of the fallen health care workers will be projected on the AFL-CIO building, which sits across from the White House. The National Nurses United (NNU) is urging the Biden administration to immediately issue an Occupational Safety and Health Administration emergency temporary standard on infectious diseases to require employers to protect employees at work. 

The event will mark International Nurses Day, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, and a time to mark the contributions nurses make to society across the globe.

• What: Honoring U.S. nurses who have died due to Covid-19
• When: Wednesday, May 12 from 9 p.m.-10 p.m. ET
• Where: Projected on the AFL-CIO headquarters building, 815 Black Lives Matter Plaza NW, Washington, DC 20005

The NNU continues to advocate for safe staffing levels, optimal personal protective equipment (PPE), the OSHA standard, and other measures aimed at protecting patients and health care workers across the nation.

“We stand united to honor our fallen nurses who were on the front line of this pandemic,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, a Filiipino American registered nurse. 

“These are more than just names projected on a building. These are our colleagues and friends, the hardworking nurses who spent each and every day protecting and caring for patients, even during a deadly pandemic," said the Filipino American leader of the U.S.'s largest nurses union. "They made the ultimate sacrifice, and we promise to never forget them, but honor them as we continue fighting to protect the living.”

According to data collected by NNU, more than a quarter of nurses who have died of COVID-19 and related complications in the U.S. are Filipino American, even though Filipinos make up only 4%, or about 150,000, registered nurses in the country.

In California where Filipinos comprise 20% of the RNs, NNU reports that 23 of the 38 known registered nurse deaths in California (as of February 11), or 3 out of 5 coronavirus deaths are of Filipino descent.

"It's very unfair because as nurses, we signed up to take care of patients, but none of us signed up to die," said registered nurse Zenei Cortez, another Filipino American leader of the NNU, to ABC News.

“The nurses have paid the ultimate price for the failure of our hospital employers and our government to protect them during this pandemic,” adds Castillo.

UC nurses angry that they are targets of anti-Asian hate while they care for Covid-19 patients

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Asian American and Pacific Islander nurses af the University of California's five  medical centers are angry that as they care for COVID-19 patients, at the same time, they are being attacked by racists blaming them for the pandemic.

UC registered nurses are outraged by the ongoing racist and xenophobic attacks against Asians and call for solidarity with Asian communities and a public commitment to solutions that work toward ending structural racism and promoting social equity and healing, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) last week.

UC nurses are speaking out across the state to condemn the ongoing xenophobic attacks against Asian communities,” said Dahlia Tayag, RN at UC San Diego. “Physical safety is critical to having a healthy community. Asians are being attacked in California and throughout the country. We must unite to challenge anti-Asian violence, harassment, and racism.”

RNs at the medical centers at UC Davis, UC San Francisco, UC Los Angeles, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego are available for interviews today.

The rise of anti-Asian hate incidents during the pandemic is appalling for nurses, many of whom are of Asian descent. As members of the Asian communities, they experience structural racism firsthand. For example, while nurses of Filipino descent represent 4 percent of all U.S. registered nurses, they have disproportionately suffered more than a quarter of Covid-19 RN deaths, according to a March 2021 NNU report.

“CNA/NNU nurses continue to be on the front lines of health care fights but we also continue to fight against racism, a public health crisis,” said Rosa Villarroel, RN at UCSF Mission Bay. “We support Asian communities, the workers in the hospital and the communities we serve. We want to let Asian communities know we see and hear their pain. As a Latinx/Indigenous woman I am no stranger to the traumatic effects of racism but together we can all stand up, speak out, and fight against two public health crises: Covid and racism.”

Anti-Asian sentiment spiked across the country at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, spurred by those who promote conspiracy theories and xenophobia, and we are now seeing a disturbing resurgence. Racial violence and harassment targeting these communities has skyrocketed in recent weeks, striking some of the most vulnerable among us – seniors in the Bay Area. Tragically, an 84-year-old Thai man was fatally attacked in San Francisco and a 91-year-old man sustained grave injuries from an attack in Oakland’s Chinatown.

#StopAAPIhate, a community-based organization collecting reports of anti-Asian incidents, reports that over 500 attacks nationwide in the first two months of 2021. In the year of the pandemic, from March 2020 to March 2021, there have been over 3800 hate attacks against AAPI, reports the CBO.

“We are furious that Asian communities are being attacked and harassed,” said Melissa Johnson-Camacho, RN at UC Davis. “As nurses working in a women-dominated profession, we are especially aware of violence against women. More than two-thirds of the incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate were reported by women. We must fight structural racism and sexism and stop the violence and harassment.”

“We care for our patients and we care for our communities,” said Fong Chuu, RN at UCLA. “As nurses we value life. The massacre of six Asian women was a horrific tragedy. The women were targeted because their lives were not valued. An attack on our Asian neighbors and communities is an assault on us all, and we have an obligation as a society to condemn and prevent it.”

“We are confronting the xenophobic legacy of former President Trump,” said Marlene Tucay, RN at UC Irvine. “His labeling of the pandemic as the ‘China virus’ has led to this increase in racist attacks against Asian communities. These racist attacks are part of the growing public health crisis in our country that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Covid-19 has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. As nurses, we know that working to achieve social equity is ultimately at the heart of ensuring public health and safety for all.”

23 Asians and AAPIs among Time's 100 Most Influential people this year

Time magazine's covers used around the world to promote the Top 100 Influential People.

Time magazine named its 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, which included 23 Asians and Asian Americans.

Of the 2020 Time100 list, Time CEO and editor in chief Edward Felsenthal writes:

 "This year's list looks far different than any of us could have predicted just six months ago. The Time 100 has always been a mirror of the world and those who shape it. While you will certainly find people who wield traditional power on this year's list—heads of state, CEOs, major entertainers—it also includes many extraordinary, lesser-known individuals who seized the moment to save lives, build a movement, lift the spirit, repair the world. ... Their work challenges each of us to wield our own influence toward a world that is healthier, more resilient, more sustainable and just."

It is not a surprise to see Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris on this election year list and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping, each with a large following and global influence.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global disaster, it's natural to expect that Dr. Anthony Fauci makes the list, however we are introduced to no less than six other lesser known Asian and Asian American medical professionals who played key roles in combatting the virus:

• Zhang Yongzhen, who led a team that published the first SARS-CoV-2 genome just days after the first cluster of cases emerged and likely within weeks of its jump into humans; 

• Shi Zhengli led one of the first scientific teams that isolated SARS-CoV-2, .; the coronavirus that went on to ravage the world;

• Dr. Zhong Nanshan, an experienced epidemiologist and physician, has been leading China’s National Health Commission’s expert panel for investigating the COVID-19 outbreak in China.  He has become the public face of China's efforts to halt the spread;

• Dr. Jung Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), has led South Korea's quick actions led to an effective corraling of the cirus before it could spread.

• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-Genral of the World Health Organizations; and

• Bonnie Castillo, a Filipino American nurse and leader of two powerful nurses' unions and who was among the first to point out the lack of personal protective equipment for hospital workers.

To see who else made the Time100 list, including the other AAPI and Asians who made their marks in culture, athletics, social change and politics, click here.

For the first time, Time revealed the annual Time100 list with an hour-long special television event on ABC. Produced in partnership with P&G, the Time100 broadcast special is created by Time's Emmy award-winning television and film division Time Studios along with industry leading global storyteller Done + Dusted, and is presented with exclusive premier sponsor Citi, signature sponsor Toyota Venza, and signature sponsor Smirnoff. The show is available on demand on ABC.com.

On September 23, 24 and 25, Time will host Time100 honorees for a three-part series of Time100 Talks, Time's series of virtual conversations that convenes influential leaders across fields to encourage cross-disciplinary action toward a better world.

To register and see the full lineup of speakers and performers, visit: time.com/time100-talks/

California hospital reinstates nurses asking for more protective equipment

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Nurses were reinstated after asking for more protective gear to care for coronavirus patients at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA.

Faced with mounting public scrutiny for its suspension of 10 registered nurses who refused to care for COVID-19 patients without proper personal protective equipment, Providence Saint John’s Health Center on April 21 reinstated all the suspended nurses

The Santa Monica, California hospital still filed written warnings in their employment records, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced.

While the nurses welcome the opportunity to get back to work during this pandemic, they will continue to fight for proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and stand up against the disciplinary actions. The nurses want PPE that provides airborne, droplet, and contact precautions against the virus, as required by Cal-OSHA standards.

Last week, the nurses, including two Filipino American RNs, refused to enter COVID-19 patients’ rooms without N95 respirators after doctors agreed the surgical masks provided by the hospital did not provide adequate protection and a coworker contracted the virus. After the nurses took a collective stand, the hospital opted to provide them N95 respirator masks.

“So the hospital is saying that we are suspended for refusing our assignments, but we’re not refusing our assignments," said Filipino American RN Allison Mayol. "We’re just doing our best to not work in unsafe environments, we are trying to not contract this disease. We’re trying to keep us safe, and our patients safe, and our community safe.”

Their concerns were especially heightened after a nurse on their floor, which handles COVID cases, tested positive for the virus.

“The following day, five different doctors came to tell our nurses, hey I would not go in that room without an N95 mask — so our doctors were going into the rooms to speak with the patients, treat the patients, but we were still not. At that point, nurses said I don’t feel safe going in there without an N-95 or a respirator,” Mayol told Balitang America.

“We are being disciplined for doing what was the right thing to do: protect the safety of our patients, our community, and the nurses,” said Jack Cline, RN. “After our actions, the hospital changed its policy to provide N95 respirators to RNs taking care of COVID-19 patients, but somehow they are still trying to intimidate and retaliate against us for speaking out for the critical protective equipment that we need.”

Nurses: California needs to do more on protective gear

Bonnie Castillo, RN, executive director of the National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association.

The coronavirus infection rate is outpacing any attempt to slow it down. The problem is the promises made by politicians is outpacing the deliverables.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United Saturday (March 21) called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials to sharply escalate steps to get immediately personal protective equipment to nurses and other health care workers.

“While the Governor has taken some important steps, including the statewide stay-at-home order, and reopening two closed hospitals, we need to do far more, especially in producing proper personal protective equipment,” said Bonnie Castillo, RN, executive director of CNA and NNU.

“We hear from scores of nurses every day, across the U.S., and many of them in California. They still do not have access to proper protective masks, such as N95 respirators, and full head-to-toe protective clothing,” said the a Filipino American registered nurse.

“They fear for their safety, for their patients’ safety, for their family’s safety, and for their co-workers’ safety. If they are not protected and safe, more people will die, and the virus will continue to spread in greater numbers.”

To make matters worse, the California Department of Public Health, which has been underfunding public health budgets for a decade, yesterday informed California hospitals that it is waiving the state's current strong requirements on hospital safety.

This waiver will allow hospitals to sharply lower practices on a wide variety of standards, including personal protective equipment (PPEs) and even safe nurse staffing for patients (nursing ratios).

On PPEs, CDPH cites the much lower, non-mandatory, guidelines suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is allowing hospitals to use vastly inferior materials, such as bandanas, that provide almost no effective protection when patients are highly contagious.

“At a time when nurses are already being told to use makeshift, inferior coverings, see N95 respirators locked up, and even being disciplined when they bring in their own N95s, this is the worst message we can send to hospital employers,” Castillo noted.

“When nurses see that neither public officials, nor their hospitals, are putting much value on their safety, that is a prescription for even further disaster,” warns Castillo, “that will have tragic consequences and do nothing to stop an escalating disaster.”

California should be moving in exactly the opposite direction, said Castillo.

While President Trump has refused to use his authority under the just re-enacted 1950 Defense Production Act to order domestic manufacturers to mass produce personal protective equipment, as well as ventilators and other critical hospital supplies, states should take the steps they can, said Castillo.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will use state funding to pay businesses to mass produce protective equipment for health care workers. “Gov. Newsom should do that as well,” Castillo said.

NNU has surveyed more than 8,200 nurses from all US states and territories. As of March 16, Just 55 percent report have access to N95 respirators, and only 27 percent have access to the highest standard, powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs).

Only 24 percent say their employer has sufficient PPEs on stock to protect staff when the inevitable surge of COVID-19 patients occurs.