Nursing home advocates shift stance on mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for staff

As the delta variant causes COVID-19 cases to surge, many long-term care providers and advocates are reversing course and calling for mandatory vaccinations for staffers.

As the delta variant continues to drive the latest coronavirus surge, many long-term care providers and advocates are calling for mandatory vaccinations for staff members -- a stark change in tone from earlier in the pandemic. "I have come full circle," said Michael Wasserman, a member of California's Vaccine Advisory Committee and past president of the California Association of Long-Term Care Medicine. "It is abundantly clear that if all nursing home staff were vaccinated, that we would dramatically impact nursing home deaths from COVID-19." Nursing homes, once deadly epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic, were among the first to be eligible to receive the vaccine against COVID-19 due to their vulnerable population of older adults, many with underlying conditions. To date, more than 184,000 nursing home residents and staff in the U.S. have lost their lives to the virus. In the months since nursing homes were prioritized for vaccination, COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing home facilities have decreased dramatically. Yet nationwide vaccination rates among nursing home staff members are lagging far behind.