WATCH: NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Proclaims Unvaccinated People ‘Aren’t Listening to God’

Individuals who have not received the coronavirus vaccine “aren’t listening to God,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared during remarks before Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center on Sunday.

“I prayed a lot to God during this time and you know what – God did answer our prayers,” Hochul stated, before denigrating those who have not yet received a coronavirus shot.

He made the smartest men and women, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers – he made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God. Thank you. And I wear my ‘vaccinated’ necklace all the time to say I’m vaccinated. All of you, yes, I know you’re vaccinated, you’re the smart ones, but you know there’s people out there who aren’t listening to God and what God wants. You know who they are. [emphasis added]

“I need you to be my apostles,” the governor added, saying that receiving the treatment is how New Yorkers can “love one another.”

I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, please get the vaccine because I love you and I want you to live, I want our kids to be safe when they’re in schools, I want to be safe when you go to a doctor’s office or to a hospital and are treated by somebody, you don’t want to get the virus from them.

On Monday, reports indicted that Hochul will sign an executive order allowing for the deployment the National Guard members as part of an effort to close the gap on possible healthcare staff shortages when the state’s vaccine mandate takes effect. The directive will also enable the governor to bring in healthcare workers from outside the state. Weekly virus testing are not allowed under the current mandate for people who opt against vaccination. 

The New York Times reported on the upcoming potential shortages:

In Buffalo, the Erie County Medical Center plans to suspend elective in-patient surgeries and not take intensive-care patients from other hospitals because it may soon fire about 400 employees who have chosen not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Officials at Northwell Health, New York’s largest provider of health care, estimate that they might have to fire thousands of people who have refused to get vaccinated.

And while the vast majority of staff members at New York City’s largest private hospital network, NewYork-Presbyterian, had been vaccinated as this week, more than 200 employees faced termination because they had not.

“We’re taking all the steps preemptively in anticipation of what I call a preventable staffing shortage – still preventable, enough hours in a day,” Hochul said during a press conference in the Bronx. “I don’t have to do this if people will get vaccinated, there’s plenty of hours left in the day, but I also know I need to be prepared.”

“We’ve sent out the alarm, we have a pool of individuals who want to help,” she added. “I would have much rather just been voluntary, but if I have to take steps to protect the people in terms of making sure I have replacements if necessary, I need to take those steps now and that executive order will do just that.”