Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Delta Air Lines' $200 Covid Insurance Employee Charge Worked
CNBC: Delta Air Lines’ $200 Per Month Experiment For Changing Unvaccinated Employees’ Minds Seems To Be Working
Americans infamously vote with their wallets. Turns out, they may get vaccinated against Covid with their wallets, too. In the two weeks since Delta Air Lines announced a $200 monthly health insurance surcharge for unvaccinated employees, 20% of Delta’s unvaccinated employees have already gotten the jab, Dr. Henry Ting, Delta’s chief health officer, said in an Infectious Disease Society of America briefing Thursday. “I think [that’s] a huge number in terms of shifting that group that’s most reluctant,” he said. (Stieg, 9/9)
Modern Healthcare: HCA Won't Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines For Its 275k+ Workers
HCA Healthcare has opted against a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for its more than 275,000 employees, the for-profit hospital giant's finance chief said Thursday. Chief financial officer Bill Rutherford made the disclosure during a virtual presentation at Morgan Stanley's 19th Annual Global Healthcare Conference. He said 186-hospital HCA "obviously" encourages the vaccinations, but is not mandating them. "Those are ongoing discussions that our clinical leadership team coupled with our epidemiologists and our operating team will continue to look at," he said. "But that's not a position HCA has taken at this point." (Bannow, 9/9)
Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Senate Plan Would Let COVID Immunity Test Equal Proof Of Shot
A measure to let proof of immunity equal proof of a COVID-19 vaccine advanced in the Senate Thursday but it was unclear whether enough time remained for it to win final passage in the House as lawmakers worked to wrap up the special legislative session. Senate Joint Resolution 3, sponsored by Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, passed the Senate 26-10. The temporary measure applies only to state employees and state venues and would last only until January. And the state does not currently require proof either of vaccination or immunity for employees or at any of its venues such as state parks. (Yetter, 9/9)
The New York Times: Vaccination Mandates Are An American Tradition. So Is The Backlash.
As disease and death reigned around them, some Americans declared that they would never get vaccinated and raged at government efforts to compel them. Anti-vaccination groups spread propaganda about terrible side effects and corrupt doctors. State officials tried to ban mandates, and people made fake vaccination certificates to evade inoculation rules already in place. The years were 1898 to 1903, and the disease was smallpox. News articles and health board reports describe crowds of parents marching to schoolhouses to demand that their unvaccinated children be allowed in, said Michael Willrich, a professor of history at Brandeis University, with some even burning their own arms with nitric acid to mimic the characteristic scar left by the smallpox vaccine. (Astor, 9/9)
Bay Area News Group: Are More Vaccine Mandates Coming To California?
It’s going to get harder for the one in four eligible Americans — nearly 80 million — and one in five Californians yet to be vaccinated to avoid the shots. President Joe Biden ratcheted up pressure on the unvaccinated Thursday with expanded federal mandates, as Los Angeles schools voted to require eligible students in the country’s second largest district to get shots. In California, a state that hasn’t been shy in ordering people around in its efforts to beat back the virus, such vaccine requirements are likely only to multiply. “A lot of people who are not vaccinated are going to have to get vaccinated,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, who said he fully supported those requirements. (Woolfolk, 9/9)
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AP: Washington State To Require Masks For Large Outdoor Events
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that starting next week, the state’s indoor mask mandate will be expanded to include outdoor events with 500 or more attendees, regardless of vaccination status. The new requirement — which takes effect Monday — comes days after a similar outdoor mask mandates took effect in the state’s two most populous counties, King and Pierce, due to rising COVID-19 cases. An indoor mask mandate, regardless of vaccination status, has been in place in Washington since Aug. 23. (La Corte, 9/9)
