As California imposed a strict vaccine mandate for all health care workers, nurses in Orange County that stood on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic fear they will lose their livelihood for refusing to get vaccinated. For 17 years, nurse Dave (a pseudonym), has served at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills. When California’s Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced in early August that health care employees would need to be vaccinated by Sept. 30, Dave, along with other unvaccinated nurses, began to worry about what their employment status would be after Oct. 1. “These are nurses that have busted their butts—crying, … getting hit, punched, [and] kicked, for the past two years, and just very brutal conditions,” he told The Epoch Times. “When everyone, to be honest, was sitting at home, in isolation, these girls were kicking butt, taking care of COVID patients with lack of supplies and all the mystery of what’s …