VA requires COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers

Delta Variant Accounts for 83 Percent, of All New US COVID-19 Cases.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.), reported the agency's finding on July 20 before Congress.This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% for the week of July 3, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, C.D.C. Director, via CNN.According to health experts, the Delta variant is more transmissible than any other known variant of the coronavirus.We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of Covid-19 on steroids. It's twice as infectious, Andy Slavitt, White House Covid Response Team, via CNN.Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks: It's called vaccine, Andy Slavitt, White House Covid Response Team, via CNN.Recent studies of vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant, .found a 93 percent prevention rate against more serious disease that leads to hospitalization.Health experts such as the U.S. Surgeon General continue to advocate for vigilance against the virus.We shouldn't let down our guard until cases not only come down but stay down, and right now cases are actually going up. , Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, via CNN.Cases are going up, hospitalizations are going up, death rates are ticking up, Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, via CNN.Surgeon General Murthy urged Americans to "consider getting vaccinated to protect the children in your community. They are depending on us."

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines, as the aggressive delta variant spreads and some communities report troubling increases in hospitalizations among unvaccinated people.

The VA’s move came on a day when nearly 60 leading medical and health care organizations issued a call for health care facilities to require their workers to get vaccinated.

At the VA, vaccines now will be mandatory for specified health care personnel — including physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants and others who work in departmental facilities or provide direct care to veterans, said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough.

Employees will have eight weeks to get vaccinated.

“It’s the best way to keep veterans safe, especially as the delta variant spreads across the country,” McDonough said in a statement. “Whenever a veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19.

“With this mandate, we can once again make — and keep — that fundamental promise,” he added.

The medical and health care groups issuing a call for mandatory vaccines included the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Public Health Association and, for the first time, a nursing home industry group. LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes and elder care facilities, had previously advocated educating nursing home employees about the benefits of getting their shots.

“Unfortunately, many health care and long-term care personnel remain unvaccinated,” the groups said in a statement. “We stand with the growing number of experts and institutions that support the requirement for universal vaccination of health workers.”