ICYMI: Vaccine Requirements Are Working

As President Biden continues his push to increase vaccinations including through more vaccine requirements, the country is seeing an undeniable truth: these requirements are working—with employers across the country already reaching upwards of 90% compliance. These vaccine requirements are critical to ensuring that not only workers are safe, but businesses stay open.

Earlier this month, President Biden laid out a six-point plan for the fall to beat the pandemic, underscoring that vaccinating the unvaccinated is key to getting the pandemic under control. The Department of Labor is currently developing an emergency rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or undergo rigorous testing. These federal vaccination requirements will cover over a hundred million individuals—two-thirds of all workers.

New York Times: 'Mandates Are Working': Employer Ultimatums Lift Vaccination Rates, So Far. "As California's requirement that all health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus took effect on Thursday, major health systems reported that the mandate had helped boost their vaccination rates to 90 percent or higher. In New York, another mandate that began this week compelled thousands of hospital and nursing home workers to get shots. And at several major corporations, executives reported surges in vaccination rates after adding their own requirements." [New York Times, 9/30/21]

Washington Post: The evidence is building: Vaccine mandates work — and well. "The reality, though, is far from as dire as it might have seemed. And the totality of the anecdotal data we have so far on coronavirus vaccine mandates points to one conclusion: They work — quite well, in fact." [Washington Post, 9/29/21]

New York Times: After Mandate, 91% of Tyson Workers Are Vaccinated. "Tyson Foods has reached a 91 percent vaccination rate for its work force, the latest evidence that corporate vaccine mandates can help increase immunizations in the United States. When Tyson announced on Aug. 3 that it would require coronavirus vaccines for all 120,000 of its U.S. employees, the move was notable because it included frontline workers when mandates applied primarily to office workers. At the time, less than half its work force was inoculated. Nearly two months later, about 109,000 employees are vaccinated, said Dr. Claudia Coplein, Tyson's chief medical officer." [New York Times, 9/30/21]

New York Times: Many health workers at big U.S. hospital chains with vaccine mandates are getting shots. "At Trinity Health, one of the first major hospital chains to announce a vaccine mandate, the percentage of its vaccinated staff has increased from 75 percent to 94 percent, said the group, which operates in 22 states. SSM Health, a Catholic hospital group based in St. Louis, also adopted a mandate but said that few of its workers had left because of its requirement…At Houston Methodist, where 150 employees left from a work force of about 26,000 people, the hospital said that there had been little lasting effect on its ability to hire people. And when Texas was hit with rising numbers of Covid cases over the summer, the hospital found that fewer of its workers were out sick." [New York Times, 9/29/21]

Washington Post: "Novant health spokeswoman Megan Rivers told the Washington Post that more than 99 percent of the system's roughly 35,000 employees have followed the mandatory vaccination program. She said in a statement that Novant Health was "thrilled" those who chose to be vaccinated have given patients and visitors "better protection against COVID-19 regardless of where they are in our health system." [Washington Post, 9/28/21]

Washington Post: Thousands of New York health-care workers got vaccinated as deadline loomed. "As of Monday evening, 92 percent of the more than 145,000 nursing home employees in the state had received at least one shot, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul, up from 82 percent a week prior. At adult care facilities, which employ about 30,000 health-care workers, the number jumped from 85 to 89 percent. Based on preliminary self-reported data, 92 percent of the state's approximately 450,000 hospital staff members have received at least one dose." [Washington Post, 9/28/21]

NPR: Lots Of People Say They'll Quit Over Vaccine Mandates, But Research Shows Few Do. "Researchers looked at companies that have vaccine mandates in place and saw that, so far, only a fraction of workers leave their jobs when it comes down to it. "In other words, vaccine mandates are unlikely to result in a wave of resignations — but they are likely to lead to a boost in vaccination rates," they write." [NPR, 9/29/21]

Slate: It Sure Seems Like a Lot of People Are Choosing to Get Vaccinated Rather Than Lose Their Jobs. "At the risk of jinxing things, it seems like the real story here is that health care workers nationwide are mostly just going along with their employers' vaccine mandates." [Slate, 9/29/21]

CNN: Almost all United employees complied with the vaccine mandate. [CNN, 9/28/21]

CNN Reliable Sources: "Almost everywhere else, the reality was clear: The mandates are helping the country. Yes, there are tradeoffs. Yes, there are complications. But there are many, many signs that the Carlson-style predictions of widespread civil disobedience were totally hollow. This banner on "Cuomo Prime Time" told the real story: "Almost all united airlines workers comply with vax mandate." That's what reporters are finding again and again as they check in with companies and government agencies. A majority of US adults got vaxxed a while ago. For the holdouts who needed a nudge, employer mandates are getting the job done." [CNN Reliable Sources, 9/29/21]

Rochester Beacon: Most employees vaccinated, hospital systems report. "As a state-ordered deadline for New York's hospital workers, including non-clinical staff, to be inoculated against COVID-19 or quit their jobs fell Monday, University of Rochester Medical Center and Rochester Regional Health officials reported that their employee-vaccination rates were rapidly approaching 100 percent… As of yesterday, URMC said 95.5 percent of all staff at Strong Memorial were vaccinated and rates across the system's hospitals were higher than 90 percent. Including individuals who legitimately opted out brought Strong's vaccination rate to 97 percent, officials said. In advance of the mandate deadline, URMC said last week that 99 percent of its clinical staff had taken a shot." [Rochester Beacon, 9/28/21]

The News & Observer: "UNC Health says more than 98% of 29,000 workers covered by its mandate have either gotten vaccinated or an approved exemption. As of Tuesday morning, it was still working to confirm the vaccination status of about 500 workers, who have until Nov. 2 to comply." [News & Observer, 9/29/21]

New York Times: "More than 90 percent of N.B.A. players have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the league, and all referees and key team personnel without exemptions will be, too, by the season's start in three weeks." [New York Times, 9/27/21]