Karl Bohnak, who reported the weather for WLUC-TV6 for more than 30 years, said he was fired for refusing to get inoculated against COVID-19. His departure, first reported by The Mining Journal, mirrors that of professionals across industries who have resigned or been fired for refusing the vaccine.
Bohnak said Gray Television, which owns WLUC-TV6, mandated that anyone entering a property owned by the company must show proof of vaccination.
“Since I chose not to take one of the shots, I was fired. Many of you have taken one of these injections, and that is absolutely your right,” Bohnak said in the Facebook post. “It is also my right to choose the medical options I feel are right for me. I have authority over my body.”
The post has since accumulated more than 2,600 comments and 3,000 shares. While many of the commenters were supportive of Bohnak, a great deal criticized the post and his refusal to vaccinate. At points, Bohnak perpetuated misinformation about the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccine, claiming that, for “a normally healthy adult not housed in a nursing home or not suffering from serious comorbidities, the chance of surviving COVID is well over 99 percent” and suggesting that there is a risk for “serious” vaccine side effects.
Bohnak, 68, falls into the high-risk category for COVID-19 hospitalizations and death for his age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Individuals 65-74 are five times more likely to be hospitalized and 90 times more likely to die from the coronavirus.
As of Thursday, only about half of the United States is fully vaccinated as public health officials struggle to be heard, or believed, over the roar of online misinformation. To combat that, employers like the nation’s major health care systems and local and state governments are enforcing vaccine mandates.
In cities like New York, vaccines are required for members of the public to dine indoors, go to the gym and more.
President Joe Biden is now moving orders forward to mandate vaccines for federal workers. He signed one executive order requiring the vaccine for federal workers with some exceptions for medical and religious accommodations, as well as one for employees of federal contractors.
Any employees who are not fully vaccinated by November 22 may be subject to discipline.
Bohnak said “liberty” and “freedom” are at stake because of the mandates, despite the country’s history of mandating vaccines effectively eradicated diseases like smallpox and polio.
“The abrogation of our liberty and freedom under the guise of a pandemic is very disturbing to me. Hopefully, whether you lean right or left, you are concerned about what has occurred the last year-and-a-half. I just wanted to go about my business, “live and let live”, and keep my mouth shut,” Bohnak wrote on Facebook. “But this act by the federal government through corporate America has brought me to a crossroads. Our way of life, our freedom and liberty, is collapsing before our eyes.”
Newsweek reached out to WLUC-TV6 but did not hear back in time for publication.
