Medical schools and teaching hospitals should require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Association of American Medical Colleges urged July 16.
The endorsement came three days after the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and six other medical coalitions called for COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of hospital employment.
David Skorton, MD, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, submitted that vaccinating healthcare workers saves lives and is especially important amid the continued resurgence of COVID-19 cases and viral variants, such as the delta variant.
"We did not come to this recommendation lightly, but instead considered the large and convincing body of evidence on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines that led the Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency use authorizations. The strength of this data collected prior to the EUAs, along with confirmation of the vaccines' effectiveness in the real-world in countries around the world, supports this recommendation," he said in a news release.
Hospitals and health systems across the U.S. have announced vaccination mandates. This includes academic medical centers, most recently the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.