An employee at a local Missouri news station was fired after more than a decade at the company for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Linda Simmons applied for an exemption to the vaccine requirement but was denied by her company, a growing trend amongst the private sector forcing employees to choose between the vaccine and their livelihoods.

According to The Hill:

I value the freedom we all have to make our own informed decisions,” Simmons said in a Facebook post on Friday. “I’ve made a big decision and decided not to allow the company that owns KY3, Gray Television, to control my personal health choices. I did not comply with their vaccine mandate after my exemption request was denied. I will miss you all, and I am sad to be leaving this way, but I have confidence that I am doing God’s will for me.”

During an interview on local radio, Simmons said after Gray Television notified all employees about its decision to require vaccines in the workplace, she applied for an exemption the same week, the Kansas City Star reported.

Simmons said she had a “sinking feeling” after learning her request had been denied, and said she was one of three other employees at the station who were terminated over refusal to comply with the vaccine requirement.

In the August memo to employees, Gray reportedly said its executives had unanimously decided to require vaccines for all employees in the workplace, citing spiking coronavirus cases nationwide at the time.