Fired ER Doctor, Who Refused Vaccine Mandate, Explains

ATLANTA, GA — Dr. William “Tommy” Redwood, 63, worked as medical director of emergency services at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta for 16 years. He also worked for four years as an emergency room physician at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta.

But after both hospital systems implemented vaccine mandates for employees — and Redwood failed to follow the mandate before the deadline — he was fired from both roles last week, he told Fox 5 Atlanta’s I-Team.

He offered to be tested for COVID-19 weekly, but got no response from Piedmont.

“I’m not here to say that I’m against vaccines,” he told Fox 5. “OK? That’s one thing I want to make perfectly clear. What I’m saying is if the intention of the vaccine mandate is to prevent transmission of disease from a healthcare worker to the patient population, then the vaccines aren’t going to achieve that.”

Redwood agreed that COVID-19 is more dangerous than the flu, and that the vaccine is preventing people from getting severely ill — but said mandates make more sense in long-term care settings where patients and employees are in close quarters for longer periods of time.

He pointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest guidance saying even vaccinated people can spread the virus, though they are not as contagious for as long as someone who is unvaccinated and infected.

"I think the hospital should be doing the same thing they were doing when this pandemic first started which is to support anybody willing to risk their life to come in and provide care for patients needing help," Redwood said.

Read more from Fox 5 Atlanta.