ASHP, Other Health Organizations Support OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Their statement also calls upon the business community to support the new federal requirement that individuals working for companies with more than 100 employees be vaccinated.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, along with many other health care organizations, including the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, and National Hispanic Medical Association, have released a joint statement supporting the Occupational, Safety, and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
The statement also calls upon the business community to support the new federal requirement that individuals working for companies with more than 100 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Compared with vaccinated individuals, unvaccinated individuals are 11 times more likely to die from the infection and any risk in receiving the vaccine is considerably less common and less serious than the consequences of contracting the virus, according to the statement.
“We—physicians, nurses and advanced practice clinicians, health experts, and health care professional societies—fully support the requirement that workers at companies with over 100 workers be vaccinated or tested,” according to the statement.
“This requirement by [OSHA] is reasonable and essential to protect workers. We encourage all businesses with 100 or more employees to not delay in implementing this standard,” according to the statement.
OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard that established binding requirements for employers with 100 or more employees to mandate that their workers are either fully vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 at least once per week.
The rule would go into effect January 4, 2022, and affect approximately 84 million United States workers.
National business industry organizations have sued the Biden administration over the requirements, and the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has temporarily halted the mandate.
Reference
Statement supporting OSHA’s COVID vaccine requirement. ASHP. News release. November 18, 2021. Accessed November 18, 2021. http://www.ezekielemanuel.com/writing/all-articles/2021/11/17/statement-supporting-osha-s-covid-vaccine-requirement
