Gamble: Full FDA Approval of Pfizer Vaccine Could Lead To More Mandates
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WHEELING -- While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine may not sway a large contingent of those hesitant to get inoculated, it may lead to more businesses and entities mandating its use.
One such entity, WVU Medicine, wasted little time in issuing a mandate.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble said that while a small part of the hesitant may take the approval as a sign to get the vaccine, the larger effect will likely be on the businesses, hospitals, school districts, and other entities who may make the vaccine a requirement.
"With FDA approval, it's going to have a small impact on those that were waiting for approval, because that was always largely an excuse," Gamble said. "… Maybe a parent might now be more comfortable taking their 12- to 18-year-old, but that's a small part of the population.
"… As far as businesses, it has a big benefit there. I think the biggest (impact) is with businesses, industry, colleges, medical centers," he said. "Especially as you start looking at higher education and hospitals, and they kind of play into each other. If a hospital requires it, then West Virginia Northern, and Wheeling University and West Liberty may list it as a requirement, because medical or health students doing rotations will have to have it."
WVU Medicine announced Monday that all of its employees must be fully vaccinated with both doses of the two-dose series by Oct. 31. Earlier Monday, the West Virginia Hospital Association backed hospitals and health systems requiring COVID-19 vaccination of their employees. That mandate goes for all WVU Medicine facilities.
"This latest surge in COVID-19 patients that we are experiencing in our ER, outpatient clinics and hospital is primarily due to unvaccinated people," Douglass Harrison, WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital president and CEO, said. "We are very concerned about what the fall will bring with back-to-school activities and the spread of COVID-19 among our children.
"WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital is not prepared to take an influx of children, and these children will most likely be transferred out of the area for care," he added. "Our ICUs are strained and our staffing shortages make this a true healthcare crisis."
Most schools, including colleges and other higher education already require certain vaccinations, such as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), influenza, and meningitis. Amy Minch, attendance director for Ohio County Schools, was present at Monday's vaccine clinic at Wheeling Park High School, and said there had not been any discussion of requiring the COVID vaccine.
Gamble said that he's heard anecdotal claims that some businesses will begin requiring the vaccine, as well as others which have reached out to the health department about the legality of asking for vaccine status.
The WPHS clinic administered 63 vaccines over the day, for a total of 83 county-wide.