Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) indicated Monday that she won’t permit the hiring of health care workers who’ve declined to get the COVID vaccine, despite her vaccine mandate being overturned in the courts and a serious healthcare worker shortage.

A state Supreme Court judge in Syracuse last week struck down the statewide vaccine mandate for medical staffers. The mandate was first implemented by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) in 2021, and then Hochul supported the edict when she became governor.

“Our healthcare systems are in desperate need of staff right now, we’ve had ambulances waiting five hours at our local emergency rooms to unload patients,” Rochester-based reporter Jennifer Lewke told Hochul. “The hospitals and nursing homes say they’re waiting for DOH [New York State Department of Health] guidance on whether they can hire any of those workers back. What’s the latest on that?”

Hochul said she’s considering legal options to challenge the decision that overturned the mandate and highlighted recruitment efforts for more vaccinated healthcare workers.

The Democrat also acknowledged that the shortage is “a problem,” while claiming the answer is not to hire ousted unvaccinated workers. “I don’t think the answer is to have someone who comes in who is sick, be exposed to someone who can give them coronavirus, give them COVID-19,” the governor told Lewke. “I don’t know that that’s the right answer. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s not.”

“I think everybody who goes into a healthcare facility or nursing home should have the assurance, and their family members should know, that we have taken all steps to protect the public health and that includes making sure that those who come in contact with them at their time of most vulnerability, when they are sick or elderly, will not pass on the virus,” Hochul added.

Lewke again pressed the governor, “Couldn’t there be other safety precautions, masking? Or other mechanisms in order to allow some of them back in? I mean we’re at crisis level here in our hospitals and nursing homes.”

Hochul said she understood “the balance” but asserted that she “cannot put people into harm’s way, because when you’re going to a health care facility, you expect that you’re not going to come out sicker than you went in, I think that’s something every New Yorker would expect.”

Hochul is suggesting only unvaccinated people can pass along the virus, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s “likely that vaccinated people with breakthrough infection or people infected without symptoms can spread the virus to others.”

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul says she won't hire unvaccinated healthcare workers despite the mandate being overturned:

"I don’t think the answer is to have someone who comes in who is sick be exposed to someone who can give them COVID-19."pic.twitter.com/qy6UICxGd4

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 24, 2023

Related: NY Health Care Upended Over Vax Mandate: Hospital Stops Delivering Babies, ER Closes, Wait-Times Explode

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) formally rejected two high-profile Democrats from continuing to serve on the House Intelligence Committee.

McCarthy posted on Tuesday a response letter addressed to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who over the weekend recommended Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) for the panel that has access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets.

I have rejected the appointments of Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell for the House Intelligence Committee.

I am committed to returning the @HouseIntel Committee to one of genuine honesty and credibility that regains the trust of the American people. pic.twitter.com/ePxlbanxta

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) January 25, 2023

“I cannot put partisan loyalty ahead of national security, and I cannot simply recognize years of service as the sole criteria for membership on this essential committee. Integrity matters more,” McCarthy said.

“As such, in order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee,” McCarthy added.

The letter was released shortly after McCarthy and Jeffries reportedly held a meeting.

.@SpeakerMcCarthy to reporter: Let me be very clear & respectful to you. You ask me a question when I answer it it's the answer to your question. You don't get to determine whether I answer a question or not, okay? In all respect…what happens in the Intel Cmte you don't know. pic.twitter.com/WD57QB7m1v

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 25, 2023

As speaker, McCarthy has the unilateral authority to block members from the House Intelligence Committee. Even before he took on the role, McCarthy vowed to bump Schiff and Swalwell from the perches they’ve held for years. McCarthy has also talked about removing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, but that would take a House floor vote to accomplish.

Not everyone in the Republican conference is on board with the push to yank Democrats from their committee assignments. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), who over the course of 15 ballots for speaker this month voted “present” some of the time, released a statement saying she did not support what she called a “charade.”

McCarthy has accused Schiff, who served as chairman of the committee for four years, of being a repeat liar, particularly with investigations related to former President Donald Trump. The speaker has raised national security concerns with Swalwell because of his intimate ties to an alleged Chinese spy years ago.

“This is petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump. If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is. I will always defend our democracy,” Schiff tweeted Tuesday evening.

Kevin McCarthy just kicked me and @RepSwalwell off the Intelligence Committee.

This is petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump.

If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is.

I will always defend our democracy.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 25, 2023

Swalwell has long defended himself in the Chinese spy scandal by pointing to FBI officials telling the media he was cooperative with any investigation and not suspected of wrongdoing.

“This rejection is based on a claim that the Washington Post independent-fact checker gave 4 Pinocchios,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Speaker [John] Boehner and [Paul] Ryan, both Gang of 8 members, appointed me to Intel with access to the same facts McCarthy is distorting. He can keep me off Intel, but I’m not going away.”

This rejection is based on a claim that the Washington Post independent-fact checker gave 4 Pinocchios. Speaker Boehner and Ryan, both Gang of 8 members, appointed me to Intel with access to the same facts McCarthy is distorting. He can keep me off Intel, but I’m not going away. https://t.co/YQZOVCSJpO

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 25, 2023

Jeffries, who replaced Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as leader of the House Democrats this session of Congress, wrote to McCarthy over the weekend arguing that both Schiff and Swalwell were “eminently qualified” to continue serving on the panel.

He noted how bipartisan votes led to Republican members being booted from their committee assignments in recent years. He also brought up “serial fraudster” Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in an attempt to bolster his argument. Republicans opted to give the freshman lawmaker, who has admitted to lying about aspects of his career and personal life, committee assignments despite Santos facing multiple investigations and calls to resign.

“The apparent double standard risks undermining the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that is so desperately needed in Congress,” Jeffries said.

The House Intelligence Committee was long regarded to be an apolitical panel up until it became ground zero for partisan sniping during Trump’s presidency with investigations into the 2016 election, Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, and Ukraine. McCarthy said he wants to redirect the focus away from politics.

“It is my assessment that the misuses of this panel during the 116th and 117th Congresses undermined its primary national security and oversight missions — ultimately leaving our nation less safe,” McCarthy wrote in his letter Tuesday. “Therefore, as we enter a new Congress, I am committed to returning the Intelligence Committee to one of genuine honesty and credibility that regains the trust of the American people.”

McCarthy has already announced the GOP members he picked for the intelligence panel this session of Congress. The chairman will be Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH). It was not immediately clear who among the Democrats would round out committee membership.