BALTIMORE — The University of Maryland Medical System and Johns Hopkins Medicine are requiring staff to be vaccinated from COVID-19.
UMMS says once a vaccine is granted full FDA approval, more than 29,000 current and new employees at all 13 of their facilities throughout the state will be required to get vaccinated, with limited exceptions for medical conditions, religious beliefs, and pregnancy.
Currently the Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer vaccines only have emergency use authorization.
Until then, UMMS is setting particular deadlines to try and have all staff vaccinated.
Under the new policy, leaders at the manager level and above will have until August 1 to be vaccinated or else they will have to submit to weekly testing.
The rest of UMMS staff will have until September 1.
"We follow the science, and the scientific evidence tells us that from a safety and efficacy standpoint, COVID-19 vaccines represent a dramatic accomplishment and a clear pathway out of this pandemic,” said Dr. Mohan Suntha, President and CEO of UMMS. “As health care professionals, we accept that we hold ourselves to a higher standard and we embrace our mission to devote ourselves to the welfare of those in our care. COVID-19 vaccines are by far the best way to stop the spread of the virus, and given our ethical obligation to our patients, we must take every appropriate measure to keep our hospitals and other locations as safe as possible.”
Johns Hopkins Medicine said they will also impose a September 1 deadline for staff and require weekly testing for those who don't meet it.
“As health care providers, it is our responsibility to do everything we can to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kevin Sowers, President of the Johns Hopkins Health System and Executive Vice President of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “We will do our part to protect and improve the health of our patients, our personnel and our community.
Additionally, GBMC will require its employees to be vaccinated by September 1st, while Ascension, which owns Saint Agnes Hospital, has set a November 12 deadline.
After initially saying they would wait for the vaccines to receive full FDA approval before mandating them for employees, LifeBridge Health switched their position on August 9.
The company will now require all their employees, even those working remote to get vaccinated by November 1.
“Given the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant, as well as the likelihood the FDA will give the vaccine full approval in the near future, we feel that now is the time we must move forward to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for LifeBridge Health team members,” says Leslie Simmons, chief operating officer and executive vice president of LifeBridge Health.
Any LifeBridge employee who files and receives an exemption will have to test regularly for the virus.
Back in April, the University System of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University implemented policies mandating students, staff, and faculty be vaccinated.
