When President Joe Biden announced that every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status, the government joined a growing list of organizations requiring vaccination against COVID-19.
In the case of federal employees, anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to wear a mask no matter where they work; test one or two times a week to see if they have acquired COVID-19; socially distance; and generally will not be allowed to travel for work.
Following the trend of many healthcare organizations, the Department of Veterans Affairs has said it will now require COVID-19 vaccines for doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers who provide medical care for veterans.
Ascension Health, a Catholic 146-hospital system operating in 22 states and Washington, D.C., also announced last week that it will require that all employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 12, 2021. "This timing is aligned with Ascension’s annual influenza vaccination requirement and we will follow a similar implementation process. In those instances when someone may not be able to get vaccinated due to a medical condition or strongly held religious belief, Ascension will provide a process for requesting an exemption similar to the process we use for the annual influenza vaccine," the system said in a news release.
Other health systems requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all employees, include 91-hospital Trinity Health, Livonia, MI; 40-hospital Mercy, St. Louis; 30-hospital Banner Health, Phoenix; Henry Ford Health System, Detroit: and Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN — to name just a few.
With the emergence of the Delta variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that fully vaccination people wear masks in public indoor areas in locations with a high rate of transmission, which the agency defines as 50 new cases for every 100,000 people in a week.
President Biden said, “The CDC recommends you wear a mask when you’re in public and indoors, like work or in a grocery store. That’s true for both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Why? Because even if you’ve been fully vaccinated and protected from severe illness from COVID-19, you could have the Delta variant in your system and spread it to someone who isn’t vaccinated.”
