OSF HealthCare announced last week that they will require all their employees, mission partners, as they call them, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Leadership says that they “thoughtfully” made this decision based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mike Cruz, M.D., OSF’s Chief Operating Officer says. “As health care providers, it is our ethical obligation to be vigilant about the safety of our patients.” He goes on that, “Vaccinations are credited with the decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases across the country and throughout our Ministry, and we firmly believe that vaccination against COVID-19 is the best way to keep our patients and Mission Partners safe.” Hundreds of healthcare workers in the U.S. have quit or been fired after being forced to be inoculated against COVID-19. U.S. COVID cases have been gaining in the last 3 weeks, and some projections say the Delta variant will continue to gain steam through summer and fall. The way the Delta variant is transmitted is the same— it is inhaled, usually in indoor spaces — but is thought to be twice as contagious as the original virus.
