FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, August 11, 2021
CONTACT: Lauren Fresconi, (302) 521-7592, LFresconi@MessagePartnersPR.com
Health Care Workforce Overwhelmed by COVID Cases
Range of public and private mandates would reduce rising hospitalizations and deaths and minimize new variants
Increasing burden of COVID cases jeopardizes other urgent testing needs with potentially grave consequences
The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), which represents more than 100,000 anatomic and clinical pathologists and medical laboratory professionals, is calling on “all responsible parties with an interest in public health and a responsibility to the American people” — policymakers, employers, event organizers, businesses, nonprofit leaders and others— to take immediate steps to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.
ASCP released a
position analysis showing the Delta variant has resulted in 93 percent of recent COVID-19 cases, causing an alarming increase in infections and hospitalizations. ASCP pathology and laboratory medicine experts believe mandatory vaccination is necessary to keep Americans safe, especially children under 12 who are not yet eligible for COVID vaccination. Experts say the more people in a community who become vaccinated, the less opportunity the Delta variant, and potential future variants, have to cause sickness, hospitalization and death.
ASCP says federal, state and local government must play a pivotal role in mandating vaccination, and in places where they hesitate, private employers and others must intervene to require vaccination.
“Vaccines for smallpox and polio were made mandatory to avoid massive epidemics, and these debilitating and deadly diseases have been eradicated. Every state requires vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella, but they have failed to take similar steps with COVID-19, one of the deadliest diseases of our lifetime,” said E. Blair Holladay, PhD, MASCP, SCT(ASCP)
CM, CEO of ASCP. “Vaccination requirements fulfills the obligation of federal, state and local policymakers to ensure people are safe. Employers must mandate that employees be vaccinated. Event organizers must require all attendees to be vaccinated. By mandating COVID-19 vaccination, the entire population is made vastly safer.”
ASCP earlier signed a
joint statement with more than 50 medical societies supporting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all healthcare and long-term care workers. Dr. Holladay says the statement is an important step but a web of public and private requirements is urgently needed.
While ASCP leaders say they understand the concerns of those hesitant to receive the vaccine, more than 4.5 billion people worldwide have now safely received the vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines have been proven safe and effective by U.S. and international scientific regulatory bodies, with close to 350 million vaccine doses administered in the United States. Data show that unvaccinated people are responsible for approximately 97 percent of all hospitalizations and 99 percent of all deaths. The burden the coronavirus has placed on pathology and laboratory medicine jeopardizes other urgent testing needs with potentially grave consequences.
“This is not just about doctors, nurses, pathologists and laboratory personnel being exhausted,” said Kimberly Sanford, MD, president of the ASCP. “Laboratory medicine is absolutely necessary for accurate and timely diagnosis of disease, infection control, and effective treatment planning. It is an essential part of the healthcare system and often overwhelmed by the increasing number of coronavirus tests requiring immediate analysis. Such testing takes time and disproportionately consumes scarce equipment and other resources. It means those with cancer and other life-threatening conditions face serious delays in diagnosis and treatment. It delays medical diagnoses, erects barriers to preventative care and prevents us from focusing on the significant healthcare needs of the population at-large.”
Government agencies and the private sector have already begun implementing vaccine mandates as a tool to curb the spread of COVID-19 and the dangerous Delta variant. Last month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced a mandate for front-line healthcare workers. This month, the U.S. Department of Defense said it will require all U.S. military members to be vaccinated by mid-September. Previously, the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that private businesses may lawfully require workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of coming to the workplace.
###
About ASCP
The American Society for Clinical Pathology unites more than 100,000 anatomic and clinical pathologists, medical laboratory professionals, residents and students to accelerate the advancement of laboratory medicine to better improve patient care through knowledge, collaboration, and global community.
Visit https://www.ascp.org/content/home
