Anti-vax nurses' threats of mass resignations over mandates look like a gigantic bust in Maine: report

Nurses and other health care workers opposed to getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus have threatened a mass resignation campaign if their institutions implement vaccine mandates.

However, the Maine Beacon reports that this threat has been mostly hot air so far in the Pine Tree State.

"Employment data shows that very few Maine health care workers have quit their jobs over the recent statewide COVID vaccine mandate, despite a number of lawsuits and ongoing protests organized by anti-vaccine activists," the publication writes.

The Maine Beacon specifically pointed to Northern Light, the second-largest health care provider in Maine, which said recently that only 20 of its 10,000-plus staff members had quit in protest of Maine Gov. Janet Mills's vaccine mandate for health care workers.

And Maine Health, the largest in-state health care provider, said that only 45 staff members out of its 23,000-plus staff resigned due to the vaccine mandate.

In fact, the combined resignations of staff members is just a fraction of the number of Maine residents currently hospitalized with COVID-19, as more than 200 Mainers are currently receiving treatment at a hospital for the disease.

The Maine Beacon notes that Republicans in the state have been pushing back against the Mills mandates, although so far it seems as though the mandates are not having dire impacts on health care staffing at major providers.