Houston Chronicle: Memorial Hermann: the 29,000 employees must be vaccinated by October 9 or “voluntarily resign”

Memorial Hermann said Monday that it would require all employees to be vaccinated by October 9, becoming the third health facility in Houston to do so. The hospital system is tracking Baylor College of Medicine, which announced its vaccine needs for employees last week, nearly two months after the Houston Methodist reached its vaccination deadline. Managers and other leaders of organizations must comply by September 11. The deadline is October 9 for all other employees, including vendors affiliated with the system and volunteers. (Gill, 8/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Permanente To Demand All Employees, Doctors, Vaccinated As Delta Cases Rise

Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente health care system will require COVID-19 vaccines for all employees and doctors, the nonprofit said on Monday. The move came as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus continues to increase infections locally and across the state and country. Under existing state guidelines, all health care workers and state employees must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or get tested weekly, but Kaiser appears to go beyond those requirements and extend the mandate to all its employees. (DiFeliciantonio, 8/2)

Louisville Courier Journal: Norton Healthcare and Baptist Health Announce Staff’s COVID Vaccine Mandate

Norton Healthcare and Baptist Health are the latest hospital systems in Kentuckiana to require their staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as cases continue to rise in the region. Norton employees must get their first injection by September 15, Norton President and CEO Russell Cox said in a company update released Monday. And in an email Monday to staff from The Courier Journal, Baptist CEO Gerard Colman also announced a vaccination mandate. (Ramsey, 8/2)

In more news on vaccine mandates –

Bloomberg: New Jersey orders state hospital and prison staff to vaccinate or test

People who work in New Jersey-run hospitals, nursing homes and prisons must be fully immunized by September 7 or undergo routine Covid-19 testing, Gov. Phil Murphy said . The ordinance applies to veterans’ homes, mental hospitals, home health agencies, Newark Acute Care Teaching Hospital and other high-risk collective care facilities. Additional employees could be subject to the requirement if the virus data continues to worsen, Murphy said at a press briefing on Monday. (Young, 8/2)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana University COVID-19 requirements upheld by appeals court

Students who don’t like Indiana University’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement may go elsewhere for their studies. This is the message delivered by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeal in a decision released on Monday that will allow the public university’s requirement that all students and employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine before the start of the fall semester. . The court said colleges and universities can decide what is needed to keep students safe in the decision to dismiss an injunction request made by a group of eight students seeking to block the warrant, alleging it violates their constitutional rights. (Herron, 8/2)

Axios: Cuomo urges private companies to switch to “admission only for vaccines”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (R) on Monday called on private companies to encourage people to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by instituting “admission only for vaccines”. The Delta variant is increasing cases of COVID-19 across the country, but deaths and hospitalizations occur overwhelmingly among unvaccinated people. (Reyes, 8/2)

Fox News: New York teachers’ union opposed Cuomo’s suggestion of terms for COVID-19 vaccine

The teachers’ union that represents more than 60,000 current and retired New York educators on Monday reiterated its opposition to COVID-19 vaccination warrants after Governor Andrew Cuomo urged school districts to demand the doses. The New York State United Teachers released a statement following Cuomo’s COVID-19 briefing in which he said teachers in the state should be required to get vaccinated or undergo weekly tests if they are in an area defined as high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Casiano, 8/3)

The Boston Globe: As Janey considers mandate for vaccines and testing, Boston does not track vaccination status of all city employees

How many of the 18,000 workers in the city of Boston are vaccinated against COVID-19? Authorities said Monday they did not know. Citing a recent increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations, Acting Mayor Kim Janey said last week that the city was “leaning toward” a vaccine and testing mandate for city workers. His office recognized that such a decision would have to be collectively negotiated with the various municipal unions in the city. But questions remain, including how many would need to be tested regularly to prove they were COVID-19 free. (McDonald, 8/2)

Bangor Daily News: Poll: Almost two-thirds of leaders support mandatory COVID-19 vaccine

Nearly two-thirds of Mainers would support a universal requirement for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new investigation that comes as a more contagious strain continues to increase cases here among the state’s unvaccinated population. The survey, conducted in June and July by researchers at four universities, found that nearly 66% of respondents in Maine would support “somewhat” or “strongly” a government mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine. The margin of error was 5.6%. Support in Maine was just above national levels, with 64 percent of adults across the United States favoring a term, according to the survey. (Piper, 8/3)

Also –

NPR: Vaccine mandate laws banned in several states

Hemi Tewarson of the National Academy for State Health Policy follows state legislatures for such bills and spoke to Morning Edition’s A Martínez about what she sees. Notably: At the end of last week, 9 states enacted 11 laws banning vaccination mandates (Arizona and Arkansas each enacted two). Not all of them were introduced or enacted at this point in the pandemic – in fact, some were introduced in February and March, and the most recent went into effect at the end of June. Some of these laws are only related to vaccines with emergency use authorization, so the ban will no longer apply if the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines gain full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. United States. (Treisman, 8/2)