from the editor Tackling the Tough Issue of Mandatory Vaccination
Please indulge me a bit , as I dedicated much of this issue to the incredibly timely and critical topic of mandatory vaccination of healthcare personnel . First , a few admissions : Yes , it ’ s a very long article . Yes , it ’ s a very complicated , contentious issue . All the more reason to devote as much space as possible to exploring the most imperative challenges and opportunities inherent to what is becoming less of a medical and scientific issue and more of a politicized issue .
If you ’ ve already made up your mind , you may be tempted to skip it , but I hope you won ’ t .
If you have an open mind , I think you ’ ll appreciate some of the questions raised .
My goal was to present a fair and balanced take on the issue , with perspectives from a variety of stakeholders on both sides of the spectrum and in the middle .
But on this page , where I can voice an opinion , I can share with you that as a businesswoman , I ’ m worried about how the vaccine mandate is going to impact the economy , the healthcare worker shortage ( and , of course , there are many more individuals in other sectors that must be accounted for as exiting their professions ), as well as the state of public health , civil liberties , and next year ’ s mid-term elections .
As I write this , it has been a little more than three weeks since the current administration announced that all companies with 100-plus employees must enforce a vaccine mandate or weekly testing , and yet there is still no real sense of when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA ) will actually issue the regulations relating to this aggressive Emergency Temporary Standard ; the White House has so far declined to offer any timeline . Yet this mandate has created a fury of firings , protests , lawsuits , and a host of other unproductive and unhelpful reactions at a time when the country has enough challenges that threaten to tear it apart . What ’ s worse , not only is OSHA bypassing the usual notice-and-comment rule-making process , it has indicated it ’ s not interested in hearing from businesses on how the mandate could be best implemented , creating confusion and
chaos – again , not the attitude we need amidst political and civil unrest created by disingenuity on both sides of the aisle .
The Coalition for Workplace Safety — which includes groups such as the U . S . Chamber of Commerce , National Retail Federation , the National Association of Manufacturers — penned a letter to OSHA , writing , “ This ETS is expected to be the most far-reaching standard ever issued by OSHA , and public input will be critical . Numerous trade associations … have reached out to us with questions their members have posed regarding the ETS and related implementation . Many of these questions are detailed and nuanced . OSHA should consider these questions and seek written input on a draft standard from stakeholders before issuing any ETS . To do otherwise invites avoidable implementation challenges and costs that would undermine the effectiveness of this ETS achieving its goals .”
In this month ’ s cover story , I focused on the impact on healthcare over the many other issues relating to the potential overreach of this vaccine mandate , but I did look at duty-to-care versus personal choice , as that seems to be one of the pillars of this debate . I would leave you with an observation from Bayer ( 2007 ): “ To what extent can a state legitimately restrict the liberties of its citizens to serve the common good ? Furthermore , to what extent has the protection of the public ’ s welfare been a pretext for governments to curtail or erode fundamental rights ? These questions have formed the foundation of controversies and long-running debates about public health in the U . S .; conflicts that have been animated by a deep-rooted mistrust of overreaching authorities , concerns about arbitrary exercises of power , and by the anti-authoritarian ethos that is a historically prominent feature of U . S . politics and civic culture .”
I hope we can continue the dialogue among all sides as this issue unfolds .
Until next month , bust those bugs ! Kelly M . Pyrek Editor & Publisher kelly @ healthcarehygienemagazine . com healthcarehygienemagazine
A . G . Hettinger , CPA president & CFO
Patti Valdez art director
J . Christine Phillips customer service manager
Healthcare Hygiene magazine is published monthly by Keystone Media Inc . 1745 Shea Center Drive , Suite 400 , Highlands Ranch , CO 80129 . Free digital subscriptions available at www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com for U . S ., Canada and other foreign subscribers . Copyright © 2021 Keystone Media Inc . All rights reserved . The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising or editorial material . Advertisers , and / or their agents , assume the responsibility for all content of published advertisements and assume responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on the advertisement . Editorial contributors assume responsibility for their published works and assume responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on the published work . All items submitted to Healthcare Hygiene magazine become the sole property of Keystone Media Inc . Editorial content may not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher . No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means , including information storage and retrieval systems , without permission in writing from the publisher .
Reference : Bayer R . The continuing tensions between individual rights and public health . EMBO Reports . Vol . 8 , No . 12 . Page 1099 . 2007 .