Earlier this month, President Joe Biden ordered federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans, including health care workers. The American Medical Association (AMA) praised the decision, noting that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had reinforced that vaccines are “safe, effective, and the only way out of this pandemic,” although some doubt has lingered as to just how many medical professionals are actually vaccinated (and, consequently, how many will choose to leave the medical industry if the healthcare settings they work in require vaccination).
Vaccine mandates are a charged issue in many fields, from education to tech, but they are especially relevant in discussions about the healthcare industry. As of May, it was estimated that a staggering one in four hospital workers was not vaccinated against COVID-19, presenting a notable risk of infection to their patients; but over the last few weeks, many large health care systems—including Yale New Haven, the large Arizona-based chain Banner Health, and several New York hospitals—have implemented vaccine mandates to get that number up. (In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has even outlined a plan to deploy the National Guard to replace unvaccinated health care workers if needed.)
As alarming as the prospect of understaffed hospitals is, particularly at a time when COVID-19 admissions among unvaccinated people are overwhelming emergency rooms and creating a shortage of ICU beds in multiple states, it’s important to consider the issue holistically. Yes, some hospitals are losing unvaccinated employees, but recent vaccine mandates do appear to be having their desired effect. At Novant Health in North Carolina, for example, where 375 workers were suspended last week for not complying with vaccine mandates, 99% of the over 30,000-person staff is vaccinated, with 200 people agreeing to get the shot as a direct result of the vaccine mandate. (The numbers are similar in other workforces: In New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a vaccine mandate for adults working in public schools, about 97% of principals, 95% of teachers, and 87% percent of non-teaching school staff had received at least one shot as of late this month.)
Of course, mandates aren’t the only tool hospitals have at their disposal to get their employees vaccinated. Dr. David H. Priest, an infectious-disease specialist and senior executive at Novant, told the New York Times that the hospital has been arranging webinars and other resources to educate employees on the benefits of vaccination, an effort reminiscent of the block-party approach to getting the general population vaccinated, using tangible incentives and common-sense, culturally accessible information. Hopefully, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to rage, more and more of the people tasked with keeping their communities safe and healthy will embrace the vaccine; not just because they’ve been federally mandated to do so, but because their workplaces are also making a good-faith effort to reach them where they are.
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