CMS' One-Size-Fits-All Mandate on Vaccines for all Health Care Workers is a Bad Idea

As a medical director for nursing homes in rural South Carolina, I wanted to give my perspective “from the trenches” regarding the recent editorial in JAMDA “Mandating COVID-19 Vaccine for Nursing Home Staff: An Ethical Obligation” by Dumyati et al.1 Our nursing homes certainly faced a dire situation in 2020. At that time, staff frequently transmitted COVID-19 infections to residents, with catastrophic results. Sadly, nursing home residents, which make up roughly 0.5% of the US population, accounted for 30% to 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States in 2020.