Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care systems in the United States, has placed about 2,200 unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave nationwide because of the company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. The employees who were suspended represent more than 1 percent of the firm’s workforce as the company employs around 216,000 people nationwide. They have until Dec. 1 to be vaccinated in order to return to work, the firm said in an Oct. 5 statement. “More than 92 percent of our employees have been vaccinated—and the number continues to grow,” Kaiser stated, adding that as of Oct. 4, employees who have “not responded to our vaccine requirement” were placed on unpaid administrative leave. “We hope none of our employees will choose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated, but we won’t know with certainty until then,” the Oakland, California-based company stated. “We will continue to work with this group of employees …