Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and former Baltimore health commissioner, told Democracy Now that she supports the new U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that require everyone to wear masks indoor because the previous CDC “honor system” of trusting unvaccinated people did not work:
Back in May, when they lifted the indoor mask requirement. I thought that the honor code was never going to work, that when vaccinated and unvaccinated people are mixing, unless there is proof of vaccination, everybody should still be wearing masks. And so, I actually support what the CDC is now doing, which is going back to this indoor mask requirement, because, frankly, we know that we can’t trust the unvaccinated, that they have been walking around without masks, and, in fact, that’s what led to the surge that we’re seeing.
But to answer your question about what’s happening now with vaccine approval, I mean, I think it’s good that the FDA is making sure that we follow the right process. We don’t want for anything to be rushed. But, that said, whatever red-tape bureaucracy there is, we really should be cutting out, because full approval — I mean, at this point, hundreds of millions of people around the world have received these life-saving vaccines.
We know, and it’s been proven, how safe and effective they are. So I’m not entirely sure what we’re waiting for. I do know that having full approval will really pave the way for a lot more employers and schools and other institutions to implement vaccine mandates, which I strongly believe is what we need at this point.
So I very much support what the Biden administration is doing with the federal government, with federal employees, saying that at this point we are in the middle of a national and international public health emergency; you have a right to stay unvaccinated if you want to, but if you want to be in public spaces, if you want to now be coming to work and be around other individuals, you don’t have a right to infect others with a potentially deadly disease. So, the idea of either testing or proving that you’re vaccinated, I think, is exactly the right one. And FDA approval in the near future, I hope, will be coming, as well…
It’s a really good point that you’re making about American exceptionalism, which is that there are people around the world, who are even healthcare workers or vulnerable older individuals, who are so desperate to get the vaccine — and, frankly, some people are going to die because they don’t have access to the vaccine — and here we are in the U.S. sitting on this surplus, really having doses that are going to go to waste.
We’re begging people to take the vaccine, when there are people around the world begging to get access to the vaccine. And I think that we should really be thinking about who we are as a country, what are the values that we have, and what is our obligation to people around the world, as well…
And we have now seen, I think, of last count, more than 800 hospitals and healthcare systems are implementing some type of vaccine mandate, because this is not new to us as healthcare workers. We are routinely required — every year, we have to get the flu vaccine. We’re required to have our MMR vaccines and our hepatitis vaccines, because it would just be irresponsible for us to pass on diseases to our patients, some of whom are among the most vulnerable.
I mean, we have an obligation to care for our patients. This is another one where I really believe that mandates are important. We’ve seen all these medical associations get behind the idea of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
And I think as more healthcare workers are vaccinated, it’s also important that we recognize that we are in a trusted position in our communities, and begin to tell our friends and relatives and colleagues in the community writ large about the importance of vaccination.
(Source: Democracy Now)