Dozens of major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, called for employers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all healthcare workers.
“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. This is the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all health care workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first and take all steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being,” the groups wrote in a statement (pdf) on Monday.
They argued that because of the “Delta” variant, which is believed to be more contagious, and more reports of COVID-19 hospitalizations, healthcare settings should make vaccines mandatory. With an increase in vaccinations, the statement continued, it will prevent the possibility of more lockdowns or other COVID-19-related orders.
Their statement made no mention of individuals who had already contracted COVID-19 but recovered and developed natural immunity. Because healthcare workers come into frequent contact with COVID-19 cases, previous studies have shown they are more likely to contract the virus.
Another study from the National Institutes of Health showed that those who recovered from the virus had a “lasting immunity” to the pathogen because, as the agency noted, “after people recover from infection with a virus, the immune system retains a memory of it” and “immune cells and proteins that circulate in the body can recognize and kill the pathogen if it’s encountered again, protecting against disease and reducing illness severity.”
A number of workers in the healthcare field are not vaccinated, according to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and analyzed by LeadingAge. About 38 percent of nursing home staff, for example, weren’t vaccinated as of July 11. And an analysis by WebMD and Medscape showed that an estimated 25 percent of hospital workers who had regular contact with patients weren’t fully vaccinated.
The largest union of health care workers in the United States, 1199SEIU, has opposed mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for employees.
About 60 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated, but the rate of new vaccinations has slowed in recent weeks. The Biden administration, which set a self-imposed July 4 deadline to get 70 percent of people vaccinated, has engaged in a public war-of-words with social media companies and accused them of allowing alleged “misinformation” to spread.
Ezekiel Emanuel, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who organized the joint statement, told the Washington Post that he believes that mandating vaccines among healthcare workers will boost the overall uptake in Americans getting the vaccine.
“Despite everything—cajoling, making access readily available at any pharmacy, making it free, having the president plead—all of this hasn’t really moved the needle very much in the nation,” he told the paper.
Over the past weekend, protests erupted across the UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Greece, and elsewhere. It came European leaders suggested that vaccine passport-like systems would be implemented, forcing people to show whether they’re vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19 before entering certain businesses or public spaces.
COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
From The Epoch Times
