NSU releases statement after professor says she wouldn't care if unvaccinated people die
Northwestern State University has released a statement in regard to a professor who commented on Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Facebook post, stating she would not care if unvaccinated people die.
NATCHITOCHES, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Northwestern State University has released a statement in regard to a professor who commented on Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Facebook post, stating she would not care if unvaccinated people die.
Dr. Holly Stave was one of many who shared her frustration under Gov. Edwards' post about the lack of COVID-19 vaccinations in Louisiana and the rising number of people who are testing positive or dying from the coronavirus.
"It is so infuriating that those selfish people who refused to get vaccinated let the Delta variant incubate among them, and now we are all in danger again. We just learned that our university must be masked again this fall and I imagine all social gatherings will again be cancelled. At this point, vicious as it sounds, I wouldn’t care if every unvaccinated person died."
Dr. Stave was granted a leave of absence from her position for the fall semester and has announced that she will retire when the leave period expires in December, according to NSU.
"Dr. Greg Handel, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Northwestern, acknowledged that Dr. Stave's classes for the fall will be reassigned to other faculty members following her leave of absence," NSU said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
Handel says Stave also provided written documentation of her intention to retire at the end of the semester.
“This is a personnel issue, and the university will have no further comment on the matter,” said Dr. Handel.
The Louisiana Department of Health says hospitalizations have reached an all-time pandemic high in Louisiana, with 2,112 patients in the hospital. They also reported 4,725 new COVID cases and 59 new deaths Tuesday. The latest data brings the total number of cases statewide to 557,540 and deaths to 11,085.