HARRISBURG, Pa. — As more companies and industries implement vaccine mandates, new sites are popping up to connect prospective employees who don’t want the COVID-19 jab with jobs that don’t require vaccination.
Job boards for each state have been posted on Gab, a social networking site popular with some conservatives and members of the far-right.
That’s where Katherine K., a nurse of 35 years from Pittsburgh, published a post in search of a job in healthcare that won’t require her to get the vaccine.
Earlier this month President Joe Biden’s administration announced vaccine mandates for employees in most health care settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, including hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies.
“These mandates are pushing people to do harmful things to others and themselves,” Katherine, who said she was losing hope of finding a job in health care, said.
“Actually I’ve been trying to start a new business,” she said. “I’m reinventing myself.”
New sites are exclusively aimed at connecting unvaccinated employees with companies that don’t require vaccination.
RedBalloon says its clients want to be “free to work” from either vaccination or certain HR requirements, like using a coworker’s preferred pronoun.
“It’s entirely within the rights of the employer to fire someone for doing something they don’t like, but there are a lot of really good people out there that would love the opportunity to just focus on work and not identity politics or vaccination status,” RedBalloon CEO Andrew Crapuchettes said.
According to Crapuchettes, RedBalloon has drawn 100,000 job seekers and 330 employers to its site since it was founded two months ago.
Employment resource agencies, however, say the vast majority of workers have not mentioned vaccine mandates as a concern when looking for a new job.
“We have not heard anything,” Judy Wechter, site administrator for Lancaster County Pa. CareerLink said. “It has not been a topic of conversation for individuals who come in here.”
Public health officials have repeatedly pointed to the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.
“We have plenty of proof that the vaccines work,” Pa. Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said at a press conference on Tuesday.