"Do I or don't I?" Some Texas hospitals grapple with new mandatory vaccine rule [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

by Karen Brooks Harper, Texas Tribune


Hundreds of hospitals across Texas on Friday were grappling with how to respond to an announcement from President Joe Biden earlier this week that they would be required to make vaccines mandatory for their employees — even as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vows to fight the new rule.

While some, like Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist, had already announced such policies, the state’s roughly 120 public hospitals have so far been banned from enacting mandates under an executive order by Abbott — and find themselves in a far more complicated position.

“I’ve got President Biden telling me he’s going to mandate it, but I have Gov. Abbott who says I cannot mandate it,” said Adam Willman, chief executive officer of Goodall Witcher Healthcare public hospital in Clifton, outside of Waco. “Do I or don’t I? So I’m just kind of waiting for the dust to settle from yesterday to really sit down with my administrative team and see where we go from here.”

On Thursday, as deaths from the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant climbed nationwide and new cases continued to put pressure on hospital intensive care units and emergency rooms, Biden announced that all businesses, public and private, with more than 100 employees will be required to mandate vaccinations for their employees.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/10/coronavirus-texas-vaccine-mandate-hospitals/