On Tuesday, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement urging public and private sectors to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for employees following the Food and Drug Administration's full and final approval of the Pfizer vaccine.
In a statement published on the AMA’s website, President Gerald E. Harmon, M.D. called on businesses to mandate vaccinations, criticized incentives that have been rolled out to encourage people to get vaccinated, and said that vaccine mandates will expedite the process of defeating the Wuhan coronavirus.
“The simple fact is unless a significant percentage of our population is vaccinated against COVID-19 — we could be stuck fighting this virus for many more months or even years to come. Now is the time for the public and private sectors to come together, listen to the science, and mandate vaccination,” Harmon said in the statement. “The FDA has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the meticulously collected evidence from more than 100 million vaccinated Americans is clear: the vaccines we have to defeat COVID-19 are safe, effective, and the only way out of this pandemic.”
Harmon criticized the “incentives” some states and organizations have implemented to encourage people to get vaccinated.
“[T]hese incentives have not gotten us where we need to be. With the highly transmissible and more virulent Delta variant wreaking havoc and emergency departments once again overwhelmed, physicians and all frontline health care workers need help. The way to regain the upper hand in this fight is requiring vaccinations — specifically vaccine mandates,” Harmon said in the statement. “Help us win this fight, follow science, and end this pandemic by requiring vaccination.”
The AMA’s statement follows President Biden’s statement on Monday calling for employers to “step up” COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their workers.
“Today, I’m calling on more companies in the private sector to step up the vaccine requirements that’ll reach millions more people. If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that. Require it.” Biden said in his statement. “Require your employees to get vaccinated, or face strict requirements.”