A health care worker inoculates Evelyn Pereira, right, of Brooklyn, with the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as her daughter Soile Reyes, 12, looks on, July 22, 2021, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Over 50 major health care organizations call for mandating vaccines in their own industry
The American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association have joined up with over 50 other health care organizations to call for mandatory vaccinations in their industry, citing rising COVID cases and their trust in the vaccine.
“Due to the recent COVID-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement on Monday morning.
Between them, these health care organizations represent millions of physicians, nurses and other health care workers across the country, including pediatricians, oncologists and pharmacists.
And they don’t think the health care industry should be the only one to require vaccines. They also called on other industries to follow suit.
“As the health care community leads the way in requiring vaccines for our employees, we hope all other employers across the country will follow our lead and implement effective policies to encourage vaccination,” the joint statement said. “The health and safety of U.S. workers, families, communities, and the nation depends on it.”
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, just 58% of nursing home staff are vaccinated. According to one estimate in late May, 1 in 4 health care workers were unvaccinated in the U.S. In some places, like Florida, the rates were as low as 40%.
Nationwide, the U.S. is struggling to increase its vaccination rates past 50% of the total population, including children, and missed President Joe Biden’s goal to get 70% of adults vaccinated with one shot by July Fourth. As of Monday, about three weeks later, still just 69% of adults had met that goal, while 60% of adults were fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The influential statement has the potential to move the needle on an issue that, so far, has held up in court and proven to be effective at increasing vaccinations, at least in the health care field. Over the winter, Houston Methodist became the first hospital to require vaccines for its staff, and many hospital systems around the country have followed suit. In Houston, the hospital was sued, but won a lawsuit over the requirement and saw the vast majority of its 26,000-person staff get vaccinated, while around 150 quit or were fired for not adhering to the policy.
That decision spurred a recent statement from another massive health care organization, the American Hospital Association, to call for mandatory vaccinations in hospitals and paved the way for even more to get on board as they did on Monday.
