With COVID-19 case counts rising amid the spread of the Delta variant, NAPNAP joined more than 50 health care professional societies and organizations calling for all health care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in a joint statement released today. Collectively, the groups represent millions of workers throughout health and long-term care – including, doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, PAs, pharmacists, public health workers, epidemiologists and long-term care, home care and/or hospice workers.

Advocating for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers aims to protect the safety of patients and residents of long-term care facilities and make the health care sector a leader in COVID-19 vaccination just as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are once again rising throughout the United States.

Although vaccination rates among health care workers have been better than that of the general population, by the end of May, one-in-four hospital workers had not been vaccinated. This leaves patients — especially unvaccinated children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised — facing a growing risk of infection as the Delta variant surges. If implemented, this mandate would cover 17 million health care workers.

You can read the full joint statement.

July 26, 2021