DETROIT – Protests were held outside Henry Ford Health System hospitals Saturday by those who feel the new vaccine mandate crosses a line.
Read: Henry Ford Health System to require COVID vaccinations for all employees
The rallies for health care workers across Metro Detroit weren’t to celebrate the work in beating back coronavirus, but to push to likely further the spread by fighting the mandate that all Henry Ford Health System employees need to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 10.
While some of the protesters were front line workers, most of them were not and were protesting against the vaccine as a dangerous new COVID variant spreads.
Protests were held in Detroit, Clinton Township, West Bloomfield and Wyandotte.
The protest at Henry Ford’s flagship hospital in Detroit was attended by GOP candidate for governor, Ryan Kelley, who promoted the rally on social media.
Kelley was reported to the FBI for storming the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 after activists claimed to identify him in photos from the deadly riot. Kelley denies entering the building.
The protests against the vaccine comes as the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention sounded the alarm about the highly-contagious delta variant that is now spreading in all 50 states, fueling a new uptick in cases -- including here in Michigan, where the rate of fully vaccinated has stalled at 53%.
Henry Ford Health System released the following statement:
Only two Metro Detroit healthcare systems have mandated vaccines -- Henry Ford and Trinity Healthcare. Other big names, like Beaumont and Michigan Medicine, have not said whether they will follow suit.
Nationally, the United States saw an average of more than 26,000 new COVID cases over the past week -- a 67% increase from the week before.
Read: New COVID cases are on the rise in nearly every state across the US